Now that the first week of States in the United States and Canada have come and gone, we can now safely say that there is a good number of new decks mixed-in with the old. But what is the breakdown? How do the best decks operate?

Out of 22 States around in the US and Canada for the first week, 17 of them have been fully reported, with 3 partially reported so far (as of March 20th, 2009). The statistics are reproduced below.

Semifinalist Decks | Finalist Decks | Winning Decks | Dialga G | Palkia G | Dialga G / Palkia G | Toxicroak G / Skuntank G | Other Top Decks

Semifinalists

  • 17x Dialga G
  • 11x Palkia G
  • 6x Kingdra
  • 5x Dialga G/Palkia G
  • 4x Abomasnow variants
  • 4x Toxicroak G / Skuntank G
  • 4x Tyranitar
  • 3x Azelf / Mesprit / Uxie
  • 3x Gardevoir variants
  • 3x Gengar
  • 3x Rampardos
  • 3x Regigigas
  • 2x Ampharos / Manectric
  • 1x Blastoise / Delcatty
  • 1x Butterfree
  • 1x Dusknoir
  • 1x Giratina / Leafeon
  • 1x Machamp
  • 1x Magmortar/Leafeon
  • 1x Magnezone / Electivire
  • 1x Uxie / Crobat G
  • 4x Unreported

Finalists

  • 12x Dialga G
  • 7x Palkia G
  • 4x Dialga G/Palkia G
  • 2x Azelf/Mesprit/Uxie
  • 2x Gengar
  • 2x Regigigas
  • 2x Toxicroak G/Skuntank G
  • 2x Abomasnow variant
  • 1x Ampharos/Manectric
  • 1x Blastoise/Delcatty
  • 1x Gardevoir variant
  • 1x Kingdra
  • 1x Machamp
  • 1x Magnezone/Electivire
  • 1x Tyranitar

Winners

  • 7x Dialga G
  • 4x Palkia G
  • 1x Abomasnow variant
  • 1x Azelf / Mesprit / Uxie
  • 1x Dialga G / Palkia G
  • 1x Gardevoir variant
  • 1x Gengar
  • 1x Machamp
  • 1x Regigigas
  • 1x Toxicroak G/Skuntank G
  • 1x Tyranitar

Seeing that Galactic-themed decks have placed a lot in the final four, they must be a powerful deck to play with! In this article, there are five decks worth analyzing.

Dialga G

Dialga G from Platinum (7)

The first goal of the deck is to start off with a Trainer and Stadium-lock (meaning your opponent cannot play any Trainer or Stadium cards) with Dialga G‘s first attack – Deafen. The second attack, Second Strike, deals a normal 50 damage unless the Defending Pokémon has at least 2 damage counters on it, in which case the attack will do 70 damage instead. One way of getting those 2 damage counters is abusing Crobat G‘s Flash Bite Poké-Power with Team Galactic’s Invention 105 – PokéTurn. This card lets you return a Pokémon-SP you have in play to your hand, allowing you to reuse it. Another trick is to bring in a Deafen lock as well as playing a Stadium Card to enable Skuntank G‘s Poison Structure Poké-Power to inflict auto-Poison onto the Defending Pokémon, as long as it’s not a Pokémon-SP.

Dialga G LV.X is a superior card when it comes to shutting off all of the non Pokémon-SP’s Poké-Bodies, notably Mewtwo LV.X which will definitely turn the matchup around in any Pokémon-SP’s favor. If it wasn’t for Dialga G LV.X‘s Time Crystal Poké-Body, this matchup would become much more difficult. (It would require using Mismagius or something similar, but let’s be glad Dialga G LV.X has Time Crystal!) Dialga G LV.X features a nifty attack that deals 80 damage – Remove Lost can disrupt your opponent by sending their Energy cards to the Lost Zone depending on how many heads flipped, which definitely slow them down big time.

With large a number of Stadiums and Team Galactic’s Inventions in the deck, Honchkrow G is definitely a must as it can get you all of the important cards out in a pinch. Honchkrow G can serves as an amazing sniper. With Crobat G‘s Flash Bite Poké-Power you place a damage counter on any one of your opponent’s Pokémon. It increases the damage of Honchkrow G’s Target Attack. With that in mind, it is amazing to get rid of your opponent’s important Pokémon, that requires setup, such as Baltoy and Unown G.

Crobat G is always critical for this deck as its Flash Bite Poké-Power can be reused up to four times with Team Galactic’s Invention 105 – PokéTurn. Another important Pokémon for most Pokémon-SP, if running a lot of Stadium cards, is Skuntank G. It is the key as its Poison Structure Poké-Power allows you to auto-inflict the Special Condition Poison onto the Defending Pokémon right away (if it’s not a Pokémon-SP).

Bronzong G, another Pokémon-SP, is used for its Poké-Power, Galactic Switch, allowing you to move energy off one Pokémon-SP to another and making your next moves easier. However, there is the drawback of Bronzong G receiving 20 damage. In conjunction with Team Galactic’s Invention 105 – PokéTurn, any of your Pokémon-SP can be returned to your hand, played back down, and powered up again with Bronzong G’s power – an especially useful tactic in order to “heal” your main attacker. Bronzong G’s only attack, Psychic Pulse, can do 40 damage as well as 10 damage to each of your opponent’s Benched Pokémon that has any damage counters on it.

To make the deck even faster, it requires the usage of Team Galactic’s Invention 101 – Energy Gain, which reduces the Energy Cost down by one Colorless Energy, allowing you to attack right away instead of wasting another turn to get it going.

For the deck’s solid consistency to work even better versus most decks, it requires Claydol and other usual cards for setup, as well as Team Galactic’s Invention 103 – Power Spray, which allows you to shut down one of your opponent’s Poké-Powers during their turn, as long as you have more than 3 Pokémon-SP in play. This allows you to stay ahead in setup assuming you shut down their coming-into play Poké-Power – usually Uxie, Mesprit, Azelf, Spiritomb, Crobat, Giratina and Crobat G. One of the most important cards for the deck’s consistency is Cyrus’s Conspiracy – which allows you to grab an Energy card, a Supporter card, and a Team Galactic’s Invention from your deck all at once.

The Dialga G deck could use Weavile G as an additional swarming attacker, as it can search out for two Pokémon-SP to put onto the Bench, as well as swarm for a lot of damage depending on how many Pokémon-SP you have in play. To counter Grass-type decks as well as a mirror with ease, Houndoom G can serve a nice purpose, being a Fire type – it can deal considerable damage because of Weakness while either preventing your opponent’s Defending Pokémon from retreating and that Pokémon’s Poké-Power usage, or dealing straight damage.

Here is a sample deck list for a Dialga G based deck.

Palkia G

Palkia G from Platinum (12)

The only deck that can effectively play Mesprit and Team Galactic’s Invention 103 – Power Spray, Palkia G decks can easily combine disruption with spread to produce a powerful deck that cripples the opponent while maintaining an insane amount of damage across the board. Palkia G is the main hitter, doing 50 to the Defending Pokémon and 10 to each of your opponent’s Benched Pokémon with Pearl Breath. This attack is easy to pull off early on with Team Galactic’s Invention 101 – Energy Gain and Palkia G is easy to salvage with Team Galactic’s Invention 105 – Poké-Turn.

A single Palkia G Lv X is all that is required. While his power seems a bit silly at first, when combined with all three fairies from Legends Awakened (Mesprit, Uxie, Azelf) and other powerful come-into-play powers such as Crobat G, Spiritomb and Giratina, it deserves another look. His Lost Cyclone Poké-Power allows both players to choose three Benched Pokémon, where the remaining Pokémon are sent to the Lost Zone. This allows the player to lock powers, reveal prizes, draw cards, and place counters, among other things, with the only price being that the Pokémon enters the Lost Zone, where it serves a better purpose by not interfering with the bench size.

Skuntank G and Stadiums (usually Galactic HQ and Snowpoint Temple) are also used here to add that extra punch, with Dialga G LV.X sometimes seen here disabling non-Pokémon-SP Bodies while also adding another element of locking by disabling the opponent from using Trainers and Stadiums. In essence, Palkia G‘s arsenal is all Basic Pokémon that deliver too much damage spread for the opponent to return from, as well as many Power-locking and hand-disabling Pokémon that are there to help if that damage alone isn’t enough to secure the victory.

Here is a sample deck list for a Palkia G based deck.

Dialga G / Palkia G

Palkia G LV.X from Platinum (125)
Dialga G LV.X from Platinum (122)

Possibly the most complex out of the Dialga G / Palkia G based decks, this deck utilizes both Dialga G LV.X and Palkia G LV.X as main attackers. A lot of the cards have been mentioned earlier in this article. To get things done quickly, it is required to get a quick Deafen Lock to prevent your opponent from playing Trainer and Stadium cards early on while you chip away at their HP with usage of Skuntank G‘s and Crobat G‘s Poké-Power.

Dialga G and Palkia G, as well as their Level X versions, are always powerful attackers that deal a large number of damage early on as long as Team Galactic’s Invention 101 – Energy Gain is attached.

The deck uses additional Pokémon-SP for support, mainly Bronzong G which allows you to move Energy cards between your own Pokémon to make your next attack without getting stuck. Again, using Team Galactic’s Invention 105 – PokéTurn with Bronzong G’s power allows a Dialga G or Palkia G to be healed and recharged in one turn. The deck, as usual, needs the required cards to keep the deck’s consistency going.

Here is a sample deck list for a dual Dialga G / Palkia G-based deck.

Toxicroak G / Skuntank G

Skuntank G from Platinum (94)
Toxicroak G from Platinum (40)

This deck may contain the fastest and the most deadly SP-Pokémon combination of Skuntank G and Toxicroak G. Together, they use their respective abilities hand-in-hand for a superfast beat down. Using a heavy Stadium line and Skuntank G’s Poison Structure Poké-Power, Toxicroak is a 90 HP Basic with a built-in Unown G that can be dealing 70 damage (with Poison) as soon as turn one, if you go second. It’s completely immune to the threat of Machamp’s Take Out attack, which is usually a major problem for SP decks.

Combined with powerful Stadiums like Galactic HQ, Miasma Valley, and Lake Boundary, Toxicroak G can dish out big damage quickly as well as take advantage of the powerful Team Galactic Inventions. With the ability to tech in support attackers like Dialga G, Mightyena, Shaymin, or even Gliscor, this speedy Galactic deck has multiple options. The main things to watch out for are opposing Pokémon-SP decks, since Skuntank G is unable to poison your opponent’s SP-Pokémon. However, the risk may be well worth it when playing this deck.

Here is a sample deck list for a Toxicroak G / Skuntank G-based deck.

Kingdra / Machamp / Rampardos

Rampardos from Platinum (13) Machamp from Stormfront (20) Kingdra from Legends Awakened (7)

These decks all have the same strategy, but only use one full line of the Stage 2 Pokémon line. The MAIN strategy is, well, to secure a Turn-one donk, and continue to sweep as the opposing player struggles in trying to setup… The key cards to increase the odds of getting a turn-one Stage 2 Pokémon into play are: Claydol, Uxie, Bebe’s Search, Roseanne’s Research, Luxury Ball, Broken Time Space, Pokédex Handy 910is, Victory Medal, and the list goes on.

Conclusion!

It appears that while many of the same old decks are being played, a new wave of Galactic themed decks are also winning. This is of course to be expected with the recent release of Platinum. The Pokémon-SP related Trainers from this set are a big reason why those particular decks did so well. The Pokémon-SP all being Basic Pokémon that could start attacking as early as turn one was also a major help for them. For all of those out there who have more tournaments to play in, good luck with the second week of State Championships!

Credits

  • Written by… THEFapster (Jason).
  • With input from… esperante (Daniel), Holy Star (Bela), Jake, THEAbsolution (Justin), and ape101 (Tom).
  • With thanks to… the folks at the PokéGym for submitting information to the What Won States thread.
  • Thanks also go to all of the players who participated in the first week of States, as well as organizers and judges who made the States tournaments possible for everyone to participate in.