Still Good as Gold — Gholdengo for NAIC

Most people have realized by this point that Gholdengo ex is incredibly strong in the post-rotation landscape. The deck is simple and powerful, and also just so happens to have a great matchup spread. Gholdengo never ceases to be a popular deck, but when asked which decks are dominant in the metagame, most people would respond with Gardevoir ex, Raging Bolt ex, and Dragapult ex. And they would be right. Gholdengo manages well against all three of those. However, the big question on people's minds is: How will Destined Rivals affect the metagame for NAIC?

The most obvious and immediate answer is the introduction of Marnie's Grimmsnarl ex. Grimmsnarl is an incredibly strong and versatile deck that I predict will be very successful. In fact, it would be reasonable to assume that Grimmsnarl immediately joins the ranks of the most popular and threatening Tier 1 decks. Grimmsnarl is basically a massive update to the existing Froslass / Munkidori deck, flipping the previously unwinnable Gardevoir matchup into a favorable one, and providing a perfectly synergistic and powerful behemoth that is strong into every other matchup too. I have tested out some Grimmsnarl, assuming that it would destroy Gholdengo, but that isn't necessarily the case. The matchup between the two is much closer than expected, and there are some handy general-use cards for Gholdengo that shine in this matchup. I'll discuss this more a bit later.

Another potential addition to the metagame is Ethan's Typhlosion. Typhlosion can come either as its own deck archetype or as a package in existing decks like Dragapult. This card is clearly a massive threat to our beloved Gholdengo, as any deck with Typhlosion is sure to be a highly difficult matchup. That said, I do not expect Typhlosion to be very popular or successful at NAIC, though it has potential in the future once someone cracks the code. On its own, Typhlosion is underwhelming. Even clearly strong cards like Charizard ex and Dragapult ex took time to fully integrate into the meta, so I don't expect a surge of an unknown quantity like Typhlosion, especially because it's brand new and unproven. Personally, I am fine with taking an auto-loss to Typhlosion, especially if it comes with a great matchup spread across the board.

As for Gholdengo, I'm still working with the list. At the beginning of rotation, Cornerstone Mask Ogerpon ex was a big threat, so Dragapult was the natural partner for Gholdengo. In addition to Dragapult presenting a massive threat on its own and salvaging otherwise difficult games, the supplementary draw power from Drakloak was very nice. There is still an argument to be made to include Drakloak for consistency. If you're doing that, you may as well play one Dragapult ex due to its high value density, and then the Energy lineup gets a bit weird. The point is that the Dragapult package requires a high commitment and it's not as necessary as it once was. Of course, it is still good, but I am currently working on a build without it so that I have a lot more open deck slots.

Without Drakloak as a single-Prize attacker, the baby Gholdengo becomes more appealing. While I am not a huge fan of this card, it does serve a few purposes in this metagame. Aside from the general utility as a single-Prize attacker, which can be particularly useful in the mirror match or other fast Prize-race matchups, it also performs well against Grimmsnarl. Baby Gholdengo's usefulness extends far past the turn you evolve into it. It does not take damage from Froslass, making it a rather big threat. Its 30-damage attack one-shots Budew and can also take out Froslass with help from your own Munkidori. Of course, when they actually attack with Grimmsnarl itself, you'll need to respond with Gholdengo ex.

Without the space-eating Dragapult package, there's plenty of room for Ciphermaniac's Codebreaking. While I did not find it necessary with Drakloak's additional draw power, it is exponentially more helpful in the deck now without Drakloak. Ciphermaniac is almost always a powerful Supporter card to play with instant impact, although it is not particularly helpful on turn 1 to immediately stabilize. This brings me to one of Gholdengo's biggest fundamental issues. The deck often fails to properly set up on turn 1, and then it can get brutally dominated. Missing that initial beat is a death blow for this deck, as once it does get set up, the deck runs perfectly well. I've made the list to be extra consistent on turn 1 to help compensate for this issue. Cards like Iono and Pokégear 3.0 can offer immediate impact on turn 1 while also being somewhat useful on later turns. More Ciphermaniac would be nice, but it's typically best when things are already going well (and not when you need the most help), so its overall importance in the list is somewhat low. Here is my current list:

This concludes the public portion of this article.

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