Discussion The Rotation of Aromatisse XY on Fairy Deck Competitiveness

AceTrainerAlex

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Hello all! Long time lurker and first time posting.

My friend is a big fan of Gardevoir EX (PRC) and I'm trying to help him with some deck construction, but since Aromatisse is rotating for 2017, I'm having a lot of trouble building him a solid deck.

The closest I've gotten to replacing Aromatisse's Fairy Transfer is using some timely Energy Switches, but that is nowhere near as good. I know there really isn't anything that can add the versatility that Aromatisse adds, but I just want to be able to help him build something that he likes and gives him a fighting chance against some of our friends who play Serperior, Mega Ray, and Greninja.

What are some replacement cards that could be used or different engines that could pair well with Gardevoir EX, Sylveon EX (Gen), and the new (but not really new) Xerneas from Steam Seige?

Appreciate the help!
 

bbninjas

Ready or Not!
Advanced Member
Member
Moved from the TCG Help & Advice to the TCG Competitive as the OP is for subjective and discussion-worthy strategy advice. ~bbninjas
 

Javi Blizz

Spanish TCG Player
Member
I've been thinking about this deck, maybe you could build it in a more ofensive way. Instead playing Max Potion and that stuff, I'd add 4 Elixir Max. With that and GeoXerneas, I think you can have a T2 M Gardevoir powered. Also, I'm thinking about the inclusion of PROMO Regirock (the one with Omega Barrier), as you can stock in it as many energies as you want and then Ninja Boy it to a diferent pokemon. Giratina + DDE is a nice option too
 

kjmccormick

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Whilst perhaps not the most efficient solution (it takes an extra evolution and can't be searched out by Level Ball), Golduck BREAK seems like the obvious solution due to the exceptionally similar Ability. Failing that, perhaps spamming Mega Turbo and Max Elixir is really the best choice, which you could always pair with Puzzle of Time for an item-heavy approach (given the predicted fall in item lock deck popularity).

The Ninja Boy / AT Regirock suggestion of Javi Blizz is approximately genius.
 

Sabaku

Aspiring Trainer
Member
It might help a lot to take a few pages from Darkrai-EX / Giratina-EX and Water Box. Brilliant Arrow only needs Fairy Energy in general, so Double Dragon Energy can help with meeting the power conditions. Giratina-EX also combos really well with Fairy Garden, and Energy Switches can go a long way if you don't want to run Aromatisse.
 

Frosstoise

Pokemon Connoisseur
Member
Wow, how did I never notice that before! All this time, I've been working fairy decks with the orthodox approach of Aromitisse/Xerneas (Geomancy), and Max Elixirs. DDE with a benched dragon paired with Gardy is a pretty significant bang for your buck (extra 20 per attach vs Darkrai-EX.) I'm going to do some experimenting on this; the same Hydregion/Tina split that works with Darkrai would certainly work here.
 
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daniel rowland

Aspiring Trainer
Member
When my friend had m gardevoir, it was effective to keep healing and moving the energy then full healing was unbeatable.
 

Otaku

The wise fool?
Member
When my friend had m gardevoir, it was effective to keep healing and moving the energy then full healing was unbeatable.

Your friend must have had it when it was pretty new, because it hasn't been a competitive deck for the last few major events, which I'd estimate is about six months worth of time. ;)

@AceTrainerAlex Wish I had new advice, but if your friend insists on making M Gardevoir-EX work post rotation, you have been given good advice here. Stop focusing on moving Energy around and just focus on setting up something that can hit hard, or accept you'll have to focus on basic Fairy Energy cards and using Golduck BREAK. Oh yeah, or just tell your friend to play Expanded, where everything he or she has been using is still legal. ;)
 

AceTrainerAlex

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Wow thanks for all the help everyone! I really like the suggestion of the Promo Regirock. The idea is that because of its omega barrier it can't get hit with hammers and such, right?
 

zaratath

Aspiring Trainer
Member
If you really want a replacement for aromatisse you could try golduck BREAK it can only utilize basic energy but other than that it might work.
 

crystal_pidgeot

Bird Trainer *Vaporeon on PokeGym*
Member
Wow thanks for all the help everyone! I really like the suggestion of the Promo Regirock. The idea is that because of its omega barrier it can't get hit with hammers and such, right?

Not only that but from Lycandre in general. You move your energy if you can get a Max Potion off and have them protected. I have like 8 of these cards because they are so useful to keep around.

Right now I'm using Golduck Break with Ho-Oh EX because I like the ability to keep energy in play and heal when needed but this style of play is in danger.
 

AceTrainerAlex

Aspiring Trainer
Member
I'll definitely take a second look at Golduck BREAK. I didn't realize that it's any basic energies. I thought it was just restricted to Water. That's pretty awesome.

Right now I'm using Golduck Break with Ho-Oh EX because I like the ability to keep energy in play and heal when needed but this style of play is in danger.

Care to elaborate on this? In what way is it in danger?
 

crystal_pidgeot

Bird Trainer *Vaporeon on PokeGym*
Member
I'll definitely take a second look at Golduck BREAK. I didn't realize that it's any basic energies. I thought it was just restricted to Water. That's pretty awesome.



Care to elaborate on this? In what way is it in danger?

In the next format, there wont be a way to discard tool cards attached to Pokemon so Garbodor is going to shut Golduck Break down and any other ability based deck, effectively killing the play style off. Since toolbox decks are slow in nature, you wont have a way to deal with Garbodor.
 

Winny

Aspiring Trainer
Member
I think that Rainbow Xerneas is the way to go for fairy but Gardevoir does get a lot of support in Steam Siege. It gets a non-Ex attacker in the form of Xerneas BREAK as well as an alternate attacker in the New Gardevoir-EX and M Gardevoir-EX. Here a deck list I put together:


Pokemon: 14
3x Xerneas (XY)
2x Xerneas BREAK
3x Gardevoir-EX (SS)
2x M Gardevoir-EX
1x M Gardevoir-EX (SS)
2x Shaymin-EX
1x Hoopa-EX

Trainers: 34
4x Professor Sycamore
2x Lysandre
2x N
1x Deliquent
1x Teammates

4x Max Elixir
4x Ultra Ball
4x VS Seeker
3x Trainers' Mail
3x Mega Turbo
1x Super Rod

2x Fairy Garden

3x Gardevoir Spirit Link

Energy: 12
2x Double Colorless
10x Fairy


Some changes that you can make: 2 Fairy Garden 1 Delinquent could be 3 Fairy Garden but I choose the Deliquent to help counter M Ray who should be big next format. You could also invert the 2-1 split of M Gardevoir as the one from Steam Siege is faster but the old one hits harder and isn't much slower. With a slightly slower format you should be able to set up in time to keep pace with your opponent. You do normally want to swing at least once with the new one to clear your board of any Shaymin or Hoopa used to set up.

You can swap Teammates for Hex Maniac. I think the fear of Garb is going to keep ability decks in check and Teammates can insure you get the revenge KO. Another major tech is the 2 Double Colorless energy. Brilliant Arrow costs 1 fairy and two colorless so not only can you now power M Gardevoir up with a DCE drop and a M Turbo, if one dies you don't loose 90 damage (3 fairy energy) form the board. This also powers up the new Xerneas BREAK by 40 for a single drop and lets you better manipulate the new Gardevoir-EX's first attack.

I don't have any testing for this deck so some issues that I didn't predict may come up and I also might have miss shot the Meta and once again the deck might just not be viable. But, yeah, as far as I can tell that should be the best build or at least a starting point for a Gardevoir Deck going forward.
 

Frosstoise

Pokemon Connoisseur
Member
Fairy has the Mr Mime PRC that can shift tools from one pokemon to another, which is a fairly decent counter. Fun to mess with spirit links and belts too.

Play testing it a bit here, I'm growing more and more convinced that Geomancy Xerneas XY + M Gardevoir EX PRC + Tina/Hydregion is a real champ. It gets up to OHKO levels so very fast (faster than Darkrai EX, for sure,) Fairy Garden gives pretty much everything you could want free retreat, Tina and Hydregion can be used in clutch to deal with some unplesant threats, and Carbink, along with his Mr Mime buddies (both the bench damage blocking one, and the tool switcher) are providing lots of strategy disruptions.
 

AceTrainerAlex

Aspiring Trainer
Member
@Winny thanks for the deck list! I will definitely give it a try. I've been play testing a bit with the Tina build as well and I'd have to agree with @Frosstoise, it is pretty good. The damage does get up pretty quickly once you hit a few of those max elixirs and geomancy.
 

SaucySedcer

Aspiring Trainer
Member
I was thinking about a Xerneas Break deck, using cards like Giratina (Great stall card, Double Dragon Energy is amazing, and Rayquaza matchup necessity), Xerneas EX (Mainly for sniping, not a huge fan of it so far), Diancie EX (The new print is amazing, however Garbodor kinda ruins my day and without good tool removal this card is slightly nerfed), Sylveon EX (Amazing with Diancie, sets up a near infinite loop of avoiding real damage). I was planning on making a Mega Gardevoir centric deck, and basically playing it like "Trash Darktina," and while this shows initial promise, I need to do more testing. I definitely believe the way to go for Fairy decks is speed, the toolbox days are over.
 

Javi Blizz

Spanish TCG Player
Member
@SaucySedcer , I think the most viable fairy deck in the new standard will be M Gardevoir EX (PCR) / Xerneas BREAK / Giratina EX. As you said, DDE fuels M Gardy and Golden Xerneas attack, while improving the match up against M Rayquaza EX (Colorless) and M Scizor EX. I'm not a fan of Xerneas EX or Sylveon EX in this deck; since you can't rely on max potion, you need to be more agressive. 100 or 140 damage won't help you too much. Another positive point for this deck is that it doesn't use abilities (appart from Set Up and Scoundrel Ring), so Garbodor won't be a problem.
 

Ms Hugo

Aspiring Trainer
Member
I think Giratina/DDE's a good bet, along with Max Elixirs and Mega Turbos to charge up as much energy as you can.

I think Geomancy Xerneas is still too slow, but if you're using Xerneas Break with it, that could make up for it.
 
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