If you get the musical reference in the title, good for you, I don't care to explain it... heh.
Anywho, hey guys, it's AFEX, back with another article of my own. Last week we discussed the Octi-Ripple! (Octillery ripple effect) (Link down at the bottom if you want to read it), and now this week, I had many options for an article, but I thought I would talk about my favorite new rouge deck from Ultra Prism: Garchomp!
So there's the chompy boy! Now I will give a very brief overview of it's attacks. First off, Quick Dive for 2 colorless energy (1 DCE) does 50 damage to any of your opponents Pokemon, of course without applying Weakness or Resistance to Benched Pokemon attacked. This attack has come in VERY clutch in a few of my matches played with this card. One game I had Royal Bladed a Tauros GX (W/ Choice band attached, sooo 130 damage to the Tauros, because unfortunately I had No Lucario in play and couldn't get my hands on a Cynthia that turn.), and the Tauros retreated into another (Un-damaged) Tauros GX, because he saw I had another fully powered Garchomp on my bench, and didn't want to deal with it, so he would let the other get damaged. All I had to do though was Quick Dive for KO. My opponent had no answer because he expected me to attack the Tauros in the active, he managed to however, get an enhanced hammer (Top deck) and knock off my DCE from my active Garchomp. I wasn't so confident in winning this game just because, I would have to top deck a Lucario or Cynthia. On my turn, I top decked a Lucario, evolved my Riolu, searched a Cynthia from my deck, Cynthia'd, drew 6 cards, managed to get a DCE and Royal Blades for game. Yah, I got lucky, but regardless that is the sheer power of the card, but that is just merely the first attack, (Although I talked about the second attack in the process.
) The second attack does 100 damage for 1 fighting and 2 colorless energy, (1 fighting and a DCE in otherwords) and does 100 more damage if you played Cynthia from your hand on your turn. This attack is what you (most of the time) aim to be using, because it can sweep most GX's (All besides Wishiwashi GX, I believe), with this attack, why? Well it's simple math, 100 plus 100 more if you played Cynthia, plus a Choice Band (30 more Damage against EX's/GX's), that is 230 damage, enough to take out close to all GX Pokemon or any Pokemon in general in our current format (again, besides Wishiwashi GX).
So down below I am going to show ways to execute the Garchomp/Cynthia strategy in both Standard and Expanded, so that way you're doing 230 damage every turn!
Expanded:
Well, we have options For CynthiaChomp synergy, I'm not going to go to terribly in depth here, because there are only a few ways we can execute the strategy with speed and simplicity, and that is what this deck is looking for.
VS Seeker: Probably one of the most efficient ways to be able to play Cynthia every turn, however you can only play 4 VS Seeker max, per deck, so the Max amount of Cynthia you could play in perfect condition, would be 8.
Pal Pad w/Random Reciever (This could be Standard as well, so I won't restate in Standard Strats)
This may sound ineffective, but here's the gist, Pal Pad Cynthia from discard into deck, Pal Pad Cynthia from your deck to your hand, Cynthia for turn, and Royal Blades for 200 (minimum). Now you might be asking, what would you do if you get something but Cynthia. Heh, I'll explain that in a minute...
So if you used both VS Seeker and Pal Pad/Receiver you could use Cynthia up to 20 times (There is no way in god's name a game would last 20 turns, I don't think... unless I'm dumb and don't watch TCG matches enough.)!
Standard:
Already stated: Pal Pad/Reciever
Zoroark GX: While not the best option, this could definitely give a pretty decent chance of getting a Cynthia from your deck.
Tapu Lele GX: Of course, the supporter grabber, the wallet robber, is able to do such a simpleton task of getting out Cynthia! No explanation needed.
Octillery (BKT): While it's in Standard till August of this year, Octillery isn't terrible at getting Cynthia from the deck.
Lucario (ULP): This card allows you, (If and only if you have Garchomp in play) to search any card from your deck (during your turn, as much as you want throughout the entire game, as long as it's your turn, on your turn), and put it into your hand. This can grab a Cynthia from the deck, or anything, which is frankly, amazing.
Part II: All the ways to play Garchomp (Standard and Expanded)
I'm just gonna list off the different archetypes I can think of, then explain in depth.
-(Expanded)- Garchomp/Lucario/Altaria (return of FluffyChomp!)
-(Expanded)- Garchomp/Altaria (W/out Lucario)
-(Standard)- Garchomp/ Lucario (just normal run of the mill)
-(Standard {Rotating Soon})- Garchomp/Carbink BREAK/Lucario (Energy Accel)
-(Standard/Expanded {Rotating Soon})- Garchomp/Carbink BREAK/Lucario/ w/Friends (Previous arch, just simply with fighting friends)
-(Standard)- Garchomp/Zoroark GX/Lucario (a bit of a twist which I'll explain later)
-(Standard)- Garchomp/Zoroark GX (No Lucario)
Here we go, (GAK, I've been writing for sooo long), going in depth on allll of these. Going to number code these for the order in which I listed the archs'.
1. Yes, FluffyChomp returns! Altaria (DRX) allows your Dragon type Pokemon to do 10 more damage to your opponent's Pokemon, so you couldn't use this card with the alternate type Fighting Garchomp that's coming out next set. The extra damage allows you to KO anything in Expanded! (All except for Black Kyurem EX w/ a Crystal Wall attached, which allows it to have 300 HP). 4 Altaria on the bench, means with Cynthia being played that turn, you do 270 damage against EX's GX's with a Choice Band attached, 240 Damage without a Choice Band, 140 if you didn't play Cynthia that turn)
2. Same thing just without Lucario.
3. The run of the mill Garchomp Lucario, that allows you to set up with speed! Rare Candy and Lucario are critical in setting up 1 and multiple Garchomp! You can run Evosoda if you'd like.
4. Garchomp Carbink BREAK, is an arch that will allow you to get back the energy from the discard, using Carbink BREAK's Diamond Gift, for 20 Damage and attach and 2 energy cards from the discard to any of your benched Pokemon, now you might say, you mean Basic Energy, right? Nope, you can attach ANY (2) energy from the discard to any of your benched Pokemon! You can have a completely un-powered Garchomp on the bench, charged with one Diamond Gift! This archetype will get even better when I explain the "with friends variant below!
5. Garchomp Carbink BREAK, w/Friends.
Oh boy, this with friends deck will have to be expanded, THIS DECK NEEDS SKY FIELD! with the upcoming Diancie Prism Star (As long as Diancie is on your bench your Fighting Pokemon do 20 more damage) and fighting Garchomp, and so much more fighting support, you won't have enough bench space!
6. The goal of this deck is simply to Use Quick Dive, no Royal Blades, and play it with Zoroark GX for a shared secondary DCE attacker, and card drawer. Zoroark GX is an awesome secondary attacker when Garchomp isn't ready, this deck might need Counter Energy though, and Sky Field could be an option for Expanded.
7. Same as above, just without Lucario.
Part III:
Earlier I had said about the Pal Pad/Receiver for Cynthia that I wasn't ever worried about not hitting a Cynthia, why? Well in all my Chomp variants... the only supporter I play is Cynthia! The reason I only play Cynthia because in my Chomp variants I run 2 Pokemon Catcher and 2 Counter Catcher to drag Pokemon from the bench, like Guzma, just slightly less effective. Not to mention Cynthia gives me enough cards to get by and if not, I've got Lucario if I don't get enough cards to slide on by the next turn.
Conclusion:
So, what's your guys's thoughts, and verdict? I know my conclusion is, is that Garchomp Lucario is the new Greninja BREAK, it's budget friendly, powerful, easy to set up, and regardless of your list, is always consistent.
So, in sum, what article do you guys want to see next Saturday? Zoroark discussion, Buzzwole discussion, Rouge deck talk? Wooh, this was a long one in any regard though, so nothing too hefty.
In any case, this is AFEX, signing off.
~AFEX
Anywho, hey guys, it's AFEX, back with another article of my own. Last week we discussed the Octi-Ripple! (Octillery ripple effect) (Link down at the bottom if you want to read it), and now this week, I had many options for an article, but I thought I would talk about my favorite new rouge deck from Ultra Prism: Garchomp!
So there's the chompy boy! Now I will give a very brief overview of it's attacks. First off, Quick Dive for 2 colorless energy (1 DCE) does 50 damage to any of your opponents Pokemon, of course without applying Weakness or Resistance to Benched Pokemon attacked. This attack has come in VERY clutch in a few of my matches played with this card. One game I had Royal Bladed a Tauros GX (W/ Choice band attached, sooo 130 damage to the Tauros, because unfortunately I had No Lucario in play and couldn't get my hands on a Cynthia that turn.), and the Tauros retreated into another (Un-damaged) Tauros GX, because he saw I had another fully powered Garchomp on my bench, and didn't want to deal with it, so he would let the other get damaged. All I had to do though was Quick Dive for KO. My opponent had no answer because he expected me to attack the Tauros in the active, he managed to however, get an enhanced hammer (Top deck) and knock off my DCE from my active Garchomp. I wasn't so confident in winning this game just because, I would have to top deck a Lucario or Cynthia. On my turn, I top decked a Lucario, evolved my Riolu, searched a Cynthia from my deck, Cynthia'd, drew 6 cards, managed to get a DCE and Royal Blades for game. Yah, I got lucky, but regardless that is the sheer power of the card, but that is just merely the first attack, (Although I talked about the second attack in the process.
) The second attack does 100 damage for 1 fighting and 2 colorless energy, (1 fighting and a DCE in otherwords) and does 100 more damage if you played Cynthia from your hand on your turn. This attack is what you (most of the time) aim to be using, because it can sweep most GX's (All besides Wishiwashi GX, I believe), with this attack, why? Well it's simple math, 100 plus 100 more if you played Cynthia, plus a Choice Band (30 more Damage against EX's/GX's), that is 230 damage, enough to take out close to all GX Pokemon or any Pokemon in general in our current format (again, besides Wishiwashi GX).So down below I am going to show ways to execute the Garchomp/Cynthia strategy in both Standard and Expanded, so that way you're doing 230 damage every turn!
Expanded:
Well, we have options For CynthiaChomp synergy, I'm not going to go to terribly in depth here, because there are only a few ways we can execute the strategy with speed and simplicity, and that is what this deck is looking for.
VS Seeker: Probably one of the most efficient ways to be able to play Cynthia every turn, however you can only play 4 VS Seeker max, per deck, so the Max amount of Cynthia you could play in perfect condition, would be 8.
Pal Pad w/Random Reciever (This could be Standard as well, so I won't restate in Standard Strats)
This may sound ineffective, but here's the gist, Pal Pad Cynthia from discard into deck, Pal Pad Cynthia from your deck to your hand, Cynthia for turn, and Royal Blades for 200 (minimum). Now you might be asking, what would you do if you get something but Cynthia. Heh, I'll explain that in a minute...
So if you used both VS Seeker and Pal Pad/Receiver you could use Cynthia up to 20 times (There is no way in god's name a game would last 20 turns, I don't think... unless I'm dumb and don't watch TCG matches enough.)!
Standard:
Already stated: Pal Pad/Reciever
Zoroark GX: While not the best option, this could definitely give a pretty decent chance of getting a Cynthia from your deck.
Tapu Lele GX: Of course, the supporter grabber, the wallet robber, is able to do such a simpleton task of getting out Cynthia! No explanation needed.
Octillery (BKT): While it's in Standard till August of this year, Octillery isn't terrible at getting Cynthia from the deck.
Lucario (ULP): This card allows you, (If and only if you have Garchomp in play) to search any card from your deck (during your turn, as much as you want throughout the entire game, as long as it's your turn, on your turn), and put it into your hand. This can grab a Cynthia from the deck, or anything, which is frankly, amazing.
Part II: All the ways to play Garchomp (Standard and Expanded)
I'm just gonna list off the different archetypes I can think of, then explain in depth.
-(Expanded)- Garchomp/Lucario/Altaria (return of FluffyChomp!)
-(Expanded)- Garchomp/Altaria (W/out Lucario)
-(Standard)- Garchomp/ Lucario (just normal run of the mill)
-(Standard {Rotating Soon})- Garchomp/Carbink BREAK/Lucario (Energy Accel)
-(Standard/Expanded {Rotating Soon})- Garchomp/Carbink BREAK/Lucario/ w/Friends (Previous arch, just simply with fighting friends)
-(Standard)- Garchomp/Zoroark GX/Lucario (a bit of a twist which I'll explain later
)-(Standard)- Garchomp/Zoroark GX (No Lucario)
Here we go, (GAK, I've been writing for sooo long), going in depth on allll of these. Going to number code these for the order in which I listed the archs'.
1. Yes, FluffyChomp returns! Altaria (DRX) allows your Dragon type Pokemon to do 10 more damage to your opponent's Pokemon, so you couldn't use this card with the alternate type Fighting Garchomp that's coming out next set. The extra damage allows you to KO anything in Expanded! (All except for Black Kyurem EX w/ a Crystal Wall attached, which allows it to have 300 HP). 4 Altaria on the bench, means with Cynthia being played that turn, you do 270 damage against EX's GX's with a Choice Band attached, 240 Damage without a Choice Band, 140 if you didn't play Cynthia that turn)
2. Same thing just without Lucario.
3. The run of the mill Garchomp Lucario, that allows you to set up with speed! Rare Candy and Lucario are critical in setting up 1 and multiple Garchomp! You can run Evosoda if you'd like.
4. Garchomp Carbink BREAK, is an arch that will allow you to get back the energy from the discard, using Carbink BREAK's Diamond Gift, for 20 Damage and attach and 2 energy cards from the discard to any of your benched Pokemon, now you might say, you mean Basic Energy, right? Nope, you can attach ANY (2) energy from the discard to any of your benched Pokemon! You can have a completely un-powered Garchomp on the bench, charged with one Diamond Gift! This archetype will get even better when I explain the "with friends variant below!
5. Garchomp Carbink BREAK, w/Friends.
Oh boy, this with friends deck will have to be expanded, THIS DECK NEEDS SKY FIELD! with the upcoming Diancie Prism Star (As long as Diancie is on your bench your Fighting Pokemon do 20 more damage) and fighting Garchomp, and so much more fighting support, you won't have enough bench space!
6. The goal of this deck is simply to Use Quick Dive, no Royal Blades, and play it with Zoroark GX for a shared secondary DCE attacker, and card drawer. Zoroark GX is an awesome secondary attacker when Garchomp isn't ready, this deck might need Counter Energy though, and Sky Field could be an option for Expanded.
7. Same as above, just without Lucario.
Part III:
Earlier I had said about the Pal Pad/Receiver for Cynthia that I wasn't ever worried about not hitting a Cynthia, why? Well in all my Chomp variants... the only supporter I play is Cynthia! The reason I only play Cynthia because in my Chomp variants I run 2 Pokemon Catcher and 2 Counter Catcher to drag Pokemon from the bench, like Guzma, just slightly less effective. Not to mention Cynthia gives me enough cards to get by and if not, I've got Lucario if I don't get enough cards to slide on by the next turn.
Conclusion:
So, what's your guys's thoughts, and verdict? I know my conclusion is, is that Garchomp Lucario is the new Greninja BREAK, it's budget friendly, powerful, easy to set up, and regardless of your list, is always consistent.
So, in sum, what article do you guys want to see next Saturday? Zoroark discussion, Buzzwole discussion, Rouge deck talk? Wooh, this was a long one in any regard though, so nothing too hefty.
In any case, this is AFEX, signing off.
~AFEX
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