Gholdengo — Making It Rain
Hey PokeBeach readers, I hope your games have been going well lately and you’re ready to learn how to make it rain! Today I thought I’d break down one of the most fun decks in the format, Gholdengo ex.
When the card came out in Paradox Rift, I think everyone knew it had potential, but it has taken the deck a while to find its footing. Initially builds were focusing on playing Bibarel and Scizor to support Gholdengo, but the deck finally got some direction when Kazuki Takahashi got Top 4 at the Champions League Kyoto by including Origin Forme Palkia VSTAR in the deck. Since then, the deck has seen a couple of Top 32 finishes at the Charlotte and Knoxville Regional Championships, piloted by Jerrick Gumila and Matthew Wood respectively. Both of them play a list inspired by Kazuki’s, but with a couple changes. Note: As I am editing this article, Jelle van Kampen just got second place at the Dortmund Regional Championships, showing off the power of this deck!
Gholdengo is a deck with unlimited damage potential using its Make It Rain attack, and has built in consistency with its Coin Bonus ability. Once the deck is fully set up it can shred through any Pokemon in the format with ease!
Kazuki’s Gholdengo ex Deck List
Why Palkia?
On the surface, Palkia seems strange in this deck. What is a Water-type Pokemon doing in a Metal-type deck? Palkia actually solves two of Gholdengo’s biggest problems. The first problem it solves is the early game. While Gholdengo has an unlimited damage cap with its Make It Rain attack, it does require a large amount of Energy cards. It is very difficult to not only evolve to a Gholdengo ex on your second turn, but also get enough Energy to take a big Knock Out on your opponent’s Active Spot Pokemon. For example, you would need six Energy to Knock Out a Basic Pokemon V or Pokemon ex with 200-250 HP (one Energy attachment, and five Energy to discard from your hand). Palkia is an incredibly efficient attacker, requiring only two Energy cards to use its Subspace Swell attack, and it can even power itself up with its VSTAR Power. Subspace Swell can hit for a large amount of damage early, while you get ready to ramp up to Gholdengo later on in the game to take one hit Knock Outs on bulky Pokemon ex, VSTAR, and VMAX. Palkia VSTAR also has 280 HP, which is not trivial early on in the game. Your opponent will need to ramp up their strategy very quickly to take Knock Out, and if the Palkia takes a hit then you are Prize trading extremely well.
This concludes the public portion of this article.
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