Regigigas: The Gigaton Pressure Lock
Article By Cetra (AKA Jaron Deacon)
April 23rd, 2010
Dp-On Format
April 23rd, 2010
Dp-On Format
So this is something I picked up back at the beginning of cities. Out of ideas with only a few days before my first city tourney in the area, I flipped through binder pages trying to figure out what to play. I didn't wanna risk Tina losing to Luxchomp (a matchup I'd never really gotten the time to test thoroughly) and Glistomb was dead due to Chatot ._. That's when I had a crazy mad stare down with my Gigas X...
Since the dawn of Expert Belt, I'd had Gigas at the top of my list of decks to bring back from the grave. Out of options and confident in my abilities, I took it and ran...
The list didn't take long to finish. Previously I'd played Gigas as a speed varient using Bronzong SF for super fast 100 damage blasting >:3; at the time, 100 damage turn 2 was pretty kool and the style fit the likes of my main deck AMU. This time, though, I opted for a bit of a different approach. Based on Palkia Lock, I decided to throw in some of its key elements and see what it got me.
First things first: Just a Few Reasons Why Regigigas is Better In My Opinion Than Palkia Lock:
-150- 190 HP. Palkia has like...120. Sure you can poketurn it, but that brings me to the next point.
-Built in Healing. No fancy add on cards needed, Gigas can easily drop off 80 damage to keep the heat going.
-Easily spammable. Getting Technical, Gigas can easily utilize and spam each of its techs better and longer because you don't send your cards to the lost zone. This on top of the lost space from SP trainers means you can fit more into the deck for better consistency.
But Back to the story...
After an hour or so of tinkering it was done...and it owned...
Since it's birth, I've played it throughout the season and top cut all but one of the tournaments it's been taken to, including Top 8 in the WA state Championships and top 32 in the NW Regional Championships. The list itself has come to evolve just like myself and my playstyle into a solid and consistent super power. People at my first cities laughed when I turned over a Regigigas...now through a handful of tournaments I can giggle to my hearts content at their demise :3
The List:
This is my current list, and the list I took to regionals this last weekend. After keeping it under such heavy lock and key I've finally decided, with support from a few people around me, to leak it to the public. Why? My season is almost 100% done. Battleroads will see the typical swarms of Machamp players, hungry for cheap donking glory, and I'm not going to spend the money to fly half way across the country by myself to attend Nats '10. So finally, here it is:
3x Regigigas (2 LA w/ Recover Mech/ 1 Drag Off Promo)
1x Regigigas Lv. X
2x Mesprit
3x Uxie
1x Uxie Lv. X
2x Azelf (1 LA/ 1 MT)
1x Baltoy
1x Claydol
1x Dialga G
1x Dialga G Lv. X
1x Unown G
1x Giratina (Let Loose)
1x Regice
4x Pokemon Collector
4x SSU
3x Pokemon Rescue
3x Felicity's Drawing
3x Warp Point
2x Cyrus Initiative
2x Expert Belt
2x Premier Ball
2x Pokemon Communication
1x TSD
4x Water
4x Fighting
4x Steel
3x DCE
1x Regigigas Lv. X
2x Mesprit
3x Uxie
1x Uxie Lv. X
2x Azelf (1 LA/ 1 MT)
1x Baltoy
1x Claydol
1x Dialga G
1x Dialga G Lv. X
1x Unown G
1x Giratina (Let Loose)
1x Regice
4x Pokemon Collector
4x SSU
3x Pokemon Rescue
3x Felicity's Drawing
3x Warp Point
2x Cyrus Initiative
2x Expert Belt
2x Premier Ball
2x Pokemon Communication
1x TSD
4x Water
4x Fighting
4x Steel
3x DCE
So there's the list. Let me say that on the surface, some may not understand how it could work properly. I'm not saying the deck itself is perfect, but what I will say is that it's heavilly tailored to my playstyle and has only really let me down on a few occasions (like the first 2 matches of Regionals...). To further help you understand the deck, its components and how they all work together like a well oiled machine, I bring you...The Breakdown:
The Break Down:
Regigigas:
Regigigas:
These are three of the cards that make up your entire deck,
First up is Gigas LA. The list runs 2 because for the most part, it's far more universal than Drag Off. For three energy, you're batting for 60 (80 belted) with potential to hit for 80 (100 belted) and dealing 20 damage to a benched Pokemon of Your choice. This is great for setting up future knockouts and counters gigas's biggest weakness in my mind: things with over 120 HP.
Then there's Drag Off Gigas. A fun card in and of itself, Drag Off Gigas offers you 2 awesome options. For three colorless, you pick one of your opponents Pokemon, pull it into the active spot (if it's not there already) and hit it for 30 (50 belted). This attack is worth building a deck around on its own. It's great for KOing things like Baltoys, Hopips, and even Garchomp Cs! As if that wasn't enough, it can even stall by pulling out your oppoents techs like Regice, Claydol, Nidoqueen and DP Noir. It's second attack, may not see much use, but it has decent synergy with the level X's Giga Blaster by hitting for solid 80 (100 belted).
At 100 HP, good luck getting donked, and with the Lv. X's power (see next section), you can easily start dishing out damage and taking prizes your second turn, throwing your opponent some serious heat.
Regigigas Lv. X:
Now we have Gigas X. This is where you get your tankability, your energy acceleration and your awesome 120 hitting disruption attack.
At 150 base HP, your opponent is already faced with something big and dangerous. Add on the ability to heal 80 damage every turn with Sacrifice and the option of getting up 190 HP (so choose you to run snowpoint Temple [see later on variants]) and you have an invincible monster. Yes, 2x weakness to fighting hurts alot, but in all my time playing it, it's never really been a problem I can't play around.
Tools of the Trade:
The rest of your deck is completely tech arsenal. Most of them can't attack, but they never really need to as your Gigas should be active and attacking every turn anyways.
Mesprit and Psychic Lock:
This is probably the second most important card in your deck. No psychic energy means you won't be attacking with it, but that's ok because you only need it for it's Power. Psychic Lock is a power that can literally be utilized in anything with SSU. The ability to shut off your opponent's powers for a turn is annoying, but with the way this deck is set up, you won't be doing this for a single turn, you'll be locking down your opponent for entire games.
2 Mesprit may not seem like a lot, but I promise you, they're enough. I have on multiple occassions locked my opponent entire matches only playing one. Ask around the people in my area, talk to people I've played in tournament. The numbers don't lie.
Draw Power w/ Uxie and Dol:
These cards make up your drawing engine. In order of importance you have Uxie (quick draw), Claydol (consistent draw) and Uxie X (last resort draw).
Uxie and Uxie X can also function as attackers and make up your front lines when playing machamp. With heavy psychic weakness in the format all the time, these basics can be easy pulled out to start smacking opponents into the dirt. You can even use Psychic restore to get around Gengars Fainting Spell!
The Downer Lock:
This will be your main weapon against SP decks and decks themed around other basic pokemon (i.e. Luxchomp, AMU, Shuppet [poor shuppet :'(]).
With Azelf MT, Mesprit and Uxie in play at the same time, your opponent is forced to pay an additional colorless energy to attack. Not only does this slow Garchomp C down a turn at the least, it destroys shuppet donk, makes mewtwo lvl X cry and causes overall frustration for most of the metagame. :3
Tools of Disruption; Giratina and Regice:
]
]These two cards may not look like much, but both play key roles aside Regigigas and add even more difficulty to your opponent's match.
Needing Psychic Energy like Mesprit means Giratina won't be seeing combat, but it's totally fine because it has an awesome little power called Let Loose. Your Opponent is bound the whole game. Imagine how frustrated they'll be when you reduce there hand to 4 and make them unable to power draw with bind. On a personal note, my favorite combo in this entire deck is Bind, Let Loose, Initiative, Giga Blaster (Bind your opponent's powers, drop their hand to 4, take 0-2 cards with initiative then blast another one out to potentially leave them with 1 card and no draw power).
Regice is a tad less awesome, but still important. Played more in the SP matchup, Regice moves your opponent's basics out of the way and can also double as a means of discarding energy for sacrifice
. Unlike Giratina, Regice can actually attack and works great combating Donphan.Dialga G:
So Dialga G X. This is my latest tech. Used to counter things like Mewtwo X, Donphan and other annoying bodies, it actually came in handy playing cursegar
The koolest thing about Dialga is that since it's steel, it's a tech that can actually attack! Great for deafen lock, or whipping out a quick secondary attacker, Dialga G is a great pic.
~Side Props to Ryan M. for convincing me it was worth a try.
Trainers/Supporters:
Ok, so since most of this should be a no brainer, think of this more as a crash course than an in depth analysis.
Keeping The Bind & Recovery:
Alright, so these 3 cards are your only means of maintaining an all game bind. Rescue pairs with Sacrifice for a guaranteed reset, Super Scoops are to pull you ahead in prizes (binding without the use of Sacrifice), and TSD is a bit of a mix between the two to be used when both your are in the discard for a potential 2 more binds.
Honestly, I'm not 100% set on TSD, but it can easilly be replaced with a 4th Rescue like my original builds if you find it's hindering you more than helping. Night Maintenance is also an option (see later in variants).
Pokemon Search
Pretty Simple: Your ideal opening hand has at least one Pokemon Collector. In one card, you get your first Gigas and a Mesprit along with Uxie or Baltoy (depending on your hand). This one card also lets you get your entire downer lock in one sweep.
Communication is for quick pulls on things like Claydol, or your level X if need be.
Premier Ball is usually a card you'll be burning later game and only really comes in handy for fishing Gigas X. Then why is it in the deck? Just one more trainer that helps my set up AND recovery if need be.
Felicity's is powerless draw that helps your set up by dumping energy into the discard for sacrifice. Much like Regice, energy drop is very important and the fact that you can get 3-4 cards out of it is pretty sweet. You'll also be using it later game for when your hand becomes too big for set up and cosmic power when you need to pull out those last few rescue.
Expert belt is actually a VERY important card. It gives Gigas 170 HP and makes all of his attacks OKHO able. It's also key to play with Drag Off Gigas, especially when you're aiming for quick KOs on Baltoys and Garchomps.
Cyrus's Initiative:
This card gets it's own spot because of it's various uses in the deck. Originally put in to help counter SPs, I feel Initiative is a highly underrated card. Sure it's a supporter, but when you think about it, it'd be broken if it wasn't. Initiative allows you to flip 2 coins and take a card from your opponent's hand for each heads. Since you get to look at the cards you take, it makes it deadly in any situation, but paired with Gigas's hand manipulation and binding capability's, a well placed Initiative can spell the end for your opponent pretty early on.
So how does it counter SP? Your biggest concern when playing SP is actually power spray. If you can't sacrifice to heal after getting smacked with a Promocroak G (if they can even fire off a Promo Croak retaliation), you're in some pretty big trouble. Initiative allows you to get rid of sprays when you actually NEED to get a power off. It functions in that sense just lke Giratina, except it can't be sprayed and it doesn't take up a bench space.
The How and Why Of Energy:
Just a quick explanation on energy and all things involving energy.
The most common question I have is always: 'Why 15?'. The answer should be obvious: Consistency. 4 of each energy means I'm always starting with it and I can easilly draw out the 3 different Types I need for Sacrifice. I've tried lowering the count, it just doesn't work as well.
Why no Call? I agree that Call Energy is great, and I'd love to play it, however I find Rainbow and DCE to be more important. I've tried this as well, and it DOES work, and also adds to consistency for fixing bad starts, but as previously stated, it's just not as important as getting 2 energy for one or making up for that whiff in a certain energy type when you need to Blast something out of your way.
Why No Roseanne's? It's unnecessary. With 12 basic energy, you're drawing them out of your deck without the need to search. This is where that consistency comes in. With so many of each type, you very rarely wind up with a scenario in which you can't Giga Blaster because of not having the proper energy types in play.
Bringing It All Together:
Now that you know each cards function, let's pull everything together. One of the best aspects of Regigigas is it's ability to not only be versatile, but to have consistency in not only its starts, but in its overall gameplay. I've had tons of bad opening hands, but with how the deck is built, you easilly draw into a way of flipping them around and into your favor so never give up when you don't draw into your God Start,
What IS your God Start? All you really need are 3 cards: 1 Regigigas (of any type really), 1 Pokemon Collector and 1 basic energy card. With these, you can easily assess your opponent's opening field, and start your setup for the offensive. Your first collector should always net you (in this order) 1) Regigigas (if not already in play), 2) Your first Mesprit (even if you start with it and have SSU in hand XD) and 3) Uxie if not already possessed or Baltoy if you have Claydol or a means of Getting Claydol. Playing against Gyarados, you also want to keep in mind that you need Giratina. If you're feeling gutsy, grab it over uxie, drop your bind and let loose.
Now that you're set up, you have 2 goals: 1) Nab your lv. X and 2) Get energy in the discard for Sacrifice. Both usually come pretty naturally. Very rarely will I not have a way of getting energy into the discard. Even if you only get one, the important thing is that you have 3 on Gigas by the end of your turn so that you can start attacking. As for your X, you need it Sac for your energy acceleration, but you'll usually either top deck it, start with it or land yourself a premier ball or Communication. If you can't do one or both of the above, all is not lost. DCE is in the deck to help you consistently start your offensive your second turn.
I'm all set up! Now what? ._. Your turn structure will more than likely be something like this: 1) draw and assess the field 2) Sacrifice --> Rescue --> Psychic Bind 3) Attack and score a knockout. Anywhere before your attack, you can Cosmic (when your hand is low), drop felicity's, SSU, etc. Keep a close eye on your discard pile for how many recovery cards you've gone through and if you don't have one of the 3 in your hand before the end of your turn, no need to worry because you can cycle through deck pretty fast and you'll pry land one next go around.
On average, your games will only last 6 or seven turns. Your bind lasts out the whole game making your opponent's options VERY limited, and when you're messing with their hand on top of that, they usually fall apart pretty fast. For those of you worried about Sacrifice, get ready because the next section is just for you and all of your insecurities
About Sacrifice; Keeping Your Bind and Staying Ahead:
It's funny really: your biggest asset is also your biggest flaw. Sacrifice will heal you, maintain your lock and accelerate your energy attachment, but all at the same time, you're feeding your opponent prizes. Normally, this would be HORRIBLE, but please keep some things in mind:
1) You'll be taking prizes every turn. Very rarely will I fail to snag a KO after my Sacrifice. You have 3 warp Point, you have Regice, you have an attack that hits for 120 and you have an attack that can place damage on the bench. With so many options, if you fail to KO something, it was probably either due to a misplay or bad luck.
2) You have A LOT of Hp... (._.). Very simple, Regigigas X has a base HP of 150. With an Expert Belt that's 170 and the only surefire way of taking that down is Supreme Blasting with AMU. Yeah, you're weak to fighting, but you're faster than most and even Toxicroak G can't OHKO you before you heal and take it down. Very rarely does my opponent get to claim a prize I don't already plan to give them, be it through sacrifice or sending up a Mesprit to slaughter.
3) Super Scoop Up. Plain and Simple, SSU is in here to pull you ahead. Sure it's a coin flip, but unless you're ridiculously unlucky, you'll land at least one which is just enough to pull your prize count ahead of your opponent.
4) You don't have to Sacrifice every turn. In the start of my career with Gigas, I was ridiculously Sacrifice happy. It never really got me in trouble because I followed the rule of 2 (never Sacrifice when your opponent has 2 prizes) but as I continued to play I learned to gauge when I actually NEEDED to keep my bind going and when I could survive a turn without it. Trust you intuition, because after playing Gigas long enough, you'll more than likely be correct
If you're still leery, Gigas probably isn't for you. This isn't a pick up and play deck. It's a great deck on it's own. It'll win you matches. The truth is though that it takes a good player to sweep a Tournament.
The Matchups:
For the most part, Regigigas's strategy is universal in all matches. However, where would the fun be if there was no variation?
Vs Luxchomp - 70/30 - Your Favor:
I'll flat out admit it: this deck may've been my last ditch attempt, but I didn't go into it blind. I tailored my build to take on the titan of the time. Everything about this deck screams a counter to SP, and Luxchomp is the deck in specific I meant to gun down.
Let's look at what you have over it: 1) Power Lock, 2) Downer Lock 3) Weakness on Chomp 4) Disruption. I have lost to 1 Luxchomp deck in tournament...it was played by Zane Nelson and he's an outstanding player. Gratz
A short strategy synopsis in this match up: Get your downer lock out fast and set up as you usually would. Azelf slows them down too much, and without powers they can't bright look. Hold your initiatives for when you NEED to sacrifice (i.e. after you get smacked with a promocroak) and then just keep bringing the heat. You OHKO anything in their deck and in the end, I'm pretty sure you'll find that it isn't that difficult of a match when you keep your head.
VS G-Dos - 50/50 - One Tough Matchup ._. :
Of all the decks running around out there, this one scares me the most. When Gyarados is fully set up, it causes you MAJOR problems, mainly because you can't OHKO it and you can't place damage on it with Gigaton Punch so that you CAN OHKO it. The solution? Giratina was put into this deck specifically to counter G-Dos, and it does it's job well. During the 2nd round of states, I let loose my opponent 5x in a row after each impersonate. It burned his Collectors, it trashed his set up, and while he was flailing about, I was taking prizes. Pairing let loose with Psychic bind keeps them from ant unwanted Uxie drops or Regimoving should they draw into a collector.
This is definitely not a match to be taken lightly and is definitely a match that weeds out the people that netdeck a list VS the people that have actually PLAYED the list.
Vs Jumpluff - 75/25 (?) - Your Favor:
First off, I have never lost to Jumpluff. This is not to say the match isn't hard...
When you put thought to it, I guess it should come as no surprise. They're not OHKOing you and you're healing and taking prizes each turn. Count in the psychic lock and you have a scenario similar to your speedrill matchup. You eventually run them dry of their resources. Hand Manipulation with Let Loose and Cyrus's helps too and Drag Off Gigas is awesome for KOing benched Hopips
My advice to you in this match up is this: Keep your head, take it slow, and watch the field.
VS Dialga Chomp:
The only real worry in this matchup is that Dialga renders your Downer Bind useless. So don't bother setting it up to begin with. Instead, maintain your bind and use Regice for cheap KOs on the bench. Use your Initiatives to get rid of sprays when you need KOs and keep in mind that the faster you can set up and start attacking, the easier the match will be. Warp Point will also come in major handy.
VS Cursegar - 50/50 - Interesting...
This is another weird match like G-Dos and Jumpluff. Honestly, you shouldn't lose this match unless you fail your set up. You're way faster than them and they just feed you prizes with spiritomb. Your biggest problems? Tomb Lock: Use Dialga. SF Gengar: Watch your hand and avoid Fainting Spell like the plague. Keep your Lock so they can't de level you. Another nifty feature in this match up is using Downer Material. It forces them to attach to Tomb which slows down their setup even more.
Personally, I wish I had more testing for this specific matchup.
Vs Machamp - ? - ?
Why the ?'s? This depends ALOT. If you're playing against a straight Machamp deck, it's not an auto loss. G an Uxie and start pummeling away. Yes the odds are heavily stacked against you, but I learned in testing that it's far from impossible.
Now...the hard part comes when Machamp is teched into something else. It may seem weird, but it's because you're fighting 2 separate entity's and you can't use the flat machamp matchup strategy in other matchups.
This is less a strategy overview than it is me acting on the feeling that I'm obligated to mention that machamp can simply KO with a flick of the wrist. This is also why I won't be playing it at battleroads (Thanks David
).VS Palkia Lock - 50/50 - I have yet to lose to it:
This is actually a pretty interesting match. I find that the game shifts heavilly for teh first person to drop a bind (herp derp derp) and then it shifts again if that players bind breaks. You both have a downer lock, but they struggle with it more. They're bind also ends quicker due to teh lost zoning of all their fairies.
All in all it's obvious just from the above why this match up is based pretty much on luck throughout its entirety.
Run of the Mill Decks and Other - 75/25 - Your Favor In The Majority
This deck hurts anything reliant on powers so as such it's only natural that any deck is going to have a hard time playing against it. Couple that with Gigas's speed and power and it's really easy to flip something unprepared on its face. That said I'm in no way saying you can't lose to something not in the direct meta.
Spread can kill you so watch for Tina, and when faced with it, throw down Dialga to rid yourself of Zong MD. Donphan is annoying, but Regice and Dialga help. Charizard can be dangerous. Try getting Dialga out and onto the bench for a few turns without that annoying body. And lastly, though I have yet to lose to one, be on your guard against fighting type decks...like Monarchy ._.
Varients:
So we're almost done here, but before I go, I'd like to offer up some things I've tried and Ideas I've had.
Snowpoint Temple
It gives you and all your Pokemon (save Claydol) 20 mroe Hp. Great for combating spread and pretty impressive when you have a Gigas in play with 190 HP. However, once states hit, I took mine out in place of initiative. The truth is that if SP is prominent in your area, this card will hurt you if you play it and turn into dead weight when you don't. Love it to death, but it's just not worth it half the time.
Water Arceus: AR5:
My favorite tech ever :3
Water Arceus was my solution to Donphan. And it WORKS! XD With an attack that hits for 70 with a belt it can OHKO Phan no problem. 'BUT BUT BUT!!! Donphanz body!!! D:' Doesn't work...Fast Wave goes through all Pokepowers, Pokebodies and all other effects on the defending Pokemon ;3.
Also works great for countering Mewtwo if you choose to run AR7 (Psychic) and 1 Omniscient Lv X.
TGW/Looker's:
Kinda like initiative in teh sense that it's meant to get rid of your opponent's hand/sprays, but I don't really like it as much as I do messing with my opponent's hand while being able to know exactly what's in it at the same time.
Call Energy:
Can easily Replace DCE. It would slow yoru recovery and make you more reliant on sacrifice, but to each his own. I give this card props for helping consistency in setup.
Messing with Recovery: TSD/NM/Rescue
There are so many options here...Pkmn Rescue is great because it's such a sure thing. TSD is nice for when you let multiple Mesprits hit the discard and Night Maintenance is a mix of the two. The cons to the latter. TSD and NM work better when you're running 3+ Mesprit, which I don't do. Feel free to tailor this to your liking. You run enough Collector to where you could play heavy on NM with TSD.Rescue for when you need to bind in a pinch. In the end it's completely up to you.
Gigas LA VS Drag Off:
I've had a lot of debate as to which gigas to run 2 of and which to leave at 1. Truth is, I realy can't decide. I prefer LA for it's damage placement, but Drag Off is nice in the current meta for KOing Garchomp C and Hoppip, This is something to base off not only your meta game, but your play style. From personal experience I will say that they're both fun, and they both change your playstyle dramatically. Something to keep in mind is how expensive drag off is at 20$+ a set.
Communication VS Bebe's
Another meta choice. If Cursegar stalks your area, play Bebe's. I however prefer to throw caution to the wind and go for speed over practicality in this aspect.
Tina Lv X:
A lot of people ask why I don't use it. It's a kool idea, I'll give you that. But the true is, it's unnecessary fluff.
Bats and G:
Thought up to help me against Machamp, it would work the same way it does in SP. G Crobat and smack away with Uxie using Bats as a wall. Crobat also functions in normal matches as a plus power.
Through testing, I'm sure you'll all come up with loads of ideas, and feel free to share. Naturally I can't put everything up here, but hopefully these open your minds to the possibilities.
In Conclusion...
By far, Regigigas is probably my all time favorite deck to play. It has consistency, it has speed and it has versatility that comes unrivaled. Not only that, it makes for a lot of laughs when your opponents mocks its presence before stomping his deck into the floor. Gigas may not be BDIF, but I'm proof that it holds its own quite well when everything else cripples to things like SP, G-Dos and Jumpluff.
I really wish I could take this deck to Nats, but odds are I can't. My hopes now are that maybe it'll be picked up and recognized as it should've been a long time ago: a rogue and highly underrated SUPER POWER.
Credits:
To all you people that figured out Chatterlock, for without you, I wouldn't have picked Gigas up to begin with.
Palkia Lock, for being a forefather in ideas.
Luxchomp for being such a tool
And all those people I played this season that mocked me and my awesome deck; you gave me many a giggle :3
Now to the practical thanks:
Zane Nelson for showing me that Luxchomp is dangerous when played by someone skilled
Phoenix Games for providing me a place outside of teh house to practice.
League Peoples at Phoenix for putting up with almost 5 months of (yay for Trevor!)
Ryan Merryfield for the random test sessions and idea bouncing
Jerin H. and Caleb G. for putting up with all my Giggling at home <3
Gigas for being super awesome
Corey T. for giving me one of my funnest Games all season.
David C. and his Mahchumps that will surely be at Phoenix Games during Battleroads.
Team Hatter for giving me a place to throw ideas around
And all you people reading! Thanks very much. I hope you have as much fun Giggling as I did
P.S. If anyone takes this out and kicks some serious butt, a lil recognition would be nice. Thanks loads and haaaaaaave fun with it
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