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Standard Buzzwole GX Rush (Anti-Evo Deck)

GymLdrJesse

Twitter/X 🐦 @JessePrker
Member
Hello friends!

I very rarely make my own decklists but Buzzwole has me excited at the moment. (strategy listed below) **WILL BE EDITING THIS PERIODICALLY
Buzzwole-GX-Crimson-Invasion-2-188x300.jpg


This deck has been performing well for me at the moment. It really stands out against stage 2 decks like gardevoir:
Here are some discussion points about partners..
1) Potential partners: Garbodor (ability & trash), Zygarde EX, Carbink BREAK.
Garbodor gives you so much more flexibility; covering your psychic weakness, giving you a 1 prize attacker and most importantly, blocking abilities!
Zygarde EX is another good 1 energy attacker and gives you another attacker against psychic.
Carbink BREAK is good for energy acceleration.

2) Parallel City seems like a great option for a stadium. (thank you @TuxedoBlack )
Limiting someone to 3 bench spaces means that, most of the time, you are preventing Leles! It also gives the opponent another thing to field blower. Most people only run 2-3 at the most, which means more fury belts/float stones left in play!
Po Town does seem like the stronger option at the moment. People aren't going to stop playing gardy any time soon and it does so much work in that matchup!

3) FFB vs Band: I am sticking with ffb at the moment, but there are a lot of situations where band would be better. it helps jet punch take down bigger GXs rather then just witling it down 40-60 hp at a time.

Here is the list so far..

##Pokémon - 13

* 3 Buzzwole GX
* 3 Trubbish BKP
* 1 Garbodor GRI (1 prize attacker; late game attacker)
* 2 Garbodor BKP (ability lock op)
* 2 Tapu Lele GX (deck runs fine with 2)
* 1 Espeon EX (devolve op)
* 1 Oranguru (protection against N)


##Trainer Cards - 35

* 2 Acerola (very good with buzzwole! just promote your float stoned garb and slap buzzwole/strong/ffb back on the bench!)
* 1 Brigette
* 4 Sycamore
* 4 N
* 4 Guzma
* 4 Ultra Ball
* 4 Float Stone
* 4 Fighting Fury Belt (still undecided on this or band, they both have pros and cons)
* 2 Field Blower
* 3 Po Town (this + jet punch sets up nice for Espeon EX)
* 2 Rescue Stretcher


##Energy - 12

* 4 Fighting Energy
* 4 Rainbow Energy
* 4 Strong Energy

Strategy:
Turn 2 get out Buzzwole and start hammering away with Jet Punch! (does 30 to active & 30 to one bench).
The numbers start adding up when you throw on strong energy/FFB.
(strong energy=50, FFB=60!). This is enough to one shot a lot of the popular basics for evo decks! On top of that you are softening up their bench for OHKOs to lead into your second attack, Knuckle Impact.
While Buzzwole is attacking, you can setup Garbodor to stop those pesky abilities.

I almost forgot about its GX attack, Absorption! If for some reason you haven't knocked anything out with Jet Punch, then you are hitting for 240 unmodified!
Realistically, you will have taken 1 or 2 prizes, in which case you are hitting for 200/160, which is still decent considering you dont have the drawback of Knuckle Impact!

Let me know what you guys think! Any feedback is appreciated!
 
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If you want an Alolan Ninetales out, the regular Regirock coming in Crimson Invasion does 110, so there's your one of tech. Slow, but it's there.

I would also include at least 1 Marshadow GX, well rather probably exactly 1 Marshadow GX. Your deck is full of basic fighting Pokemon with pretty good attacks and the exact same energy costs that you would have on Marshadow (Up to 3 Fighting). You can literally close games with Shadow Hunting for Knuckle Impact, then swinging with Beatdown for a total of 280 damage unmodified. Since Knuckle Impact's restriction is "this Pokemon can't attack durning your next turn," then there's nothing stopping you from doing this to take your last 2 prizes. Even without this kind of strategy, Marshadow GX is effectively an extra Buzzwole GX in terms of offensive capability.

I understand the argument for Po Town, but with Acerola running around and decks like Ho-Oh GX/Volcanion & Tapu Bulu who don't evolve their main attacker either, I would prefer personal consistency and go for Brooklet Hill. With the addition of Brooklet Hill, you can get rid of Nest Ball for more deck space.

I would also consider Carbink BREAK for energy acceleration & restoration as your attackers are all Fighting type. You can even pull back Strong Energy from the discard. This means you can instantly stick 2 Strong Energy onto a Buzzwole, next turn attach for turn, and all of a sudden you're doing 200 damage Knuckle Impact without Regirock EX or Fury Belt.

As a basic deck I would throw in some Max Elixir as well, but you're running only 6 counts of basic energy right now which is very unoptimal for Max Elixir. If you can raise your energy count to at least 8 basic/4 strong, then running 2 Max Elixir can help you accelerate in the mid/late game when your deck is thinner and you're hunting for those Knuckle Impact KOs. You also want some form of energy acceleration in case someone else's deck runs faster than yours and they just ruin your strategy altogether, like a turn 1 Kiawe onto choice banded Ho-Oh GX. You need a plan B.

As for Super Rod vs. Rescue Stretcher, absolutely Rescue Stretcher. Just grab a KO'd Buzzwole GX and stick it back on the bench. I would also definitely make room for a 3rd float stone. I NEVER see float stone when I only run 2, and I only run 2 float stone in decks that run Tapu Koko.

When building your final list, if you don't have room for Espeon EX, just scratch it. With your outlined strategy, you're going to be focusing on KOing the basics in front of you, and depending on match up, you'll want to spread the 30 bench damage to set up future KOs as opposed to consolidate it onto one Pokemon to devolve KO. I don't see Espeon EX as the game winning card in this deck.

I don't know much about this deck or fighting types in general, but these are the things I would recommend looking in to.
 
Marshadow GX is effectively an extra Buzzwole GX in terms of offensive capability.
Marshadow is an extra buzzwole with much less HP.

Your opponent wins after they knock out 3 buzzwoles. What are the odds that you can't find 3 buzzwoles with Brigette in the format?

Marshadow is good in decks with a bunch of basic pokemon, but it's only good when those pokemon are not already fighting types, so that you can have an easy fighting weakness.
 
This is perhaps the only Pokémon from the upcoming set I'm interested in since I've run its "predescessor" Landorus EX (1 of my all-time favorites Pokémon) for a long time.

In regards to your specific questions:

  1. Personally, I would not even run Buzzwole GX with Regirock EX at all. From my experience, the Regirock EXs will become more of a nuisance/ liability than the +10 damage boost is worth since they will be Guzma'd and used to stall against you. Plus, you could Fighting Fury Belts for some extra damage output. I plan to run my Buzzwole GX with Zygarde EX (another strong, 1-energy attacking F Pokémon that also has 2 other good attacks and/or Carbink BREAK (a Stage 1 Pokémon that can provide some energy-attachment (both F and Strong) acceleration.
  2. To counter Ninetales (BUS), you could simply run a 4-4 Garbodor line consisting of 2 Garbotoxin Garbodors and 2 Trashalance Garbodors. Both of these Garbodors have proven to be quite effective already in a variety of decks. PLUS, since Buzzwole GX has Psychic Weakness, the Garbodor (Trashalanche) can provide some protection; and Garbotoxin Garbodor nullifies Abilities which will also negatively affect a variety of other decks too. Lastly, the Garbodors are all 1-prize targets.
  3. IMO, the only Stadium for this deck is Parallel City given my particular game strategy (which I'm glad to discuss via PM).
In regards to your initial deck list posted above, I suggest for your consideration:

-1 Tapu Lele GX - 2 are quite sufficient
-2 Regirock EX - too much of a liability/nuisance, IMO
-2 Remoraid
-2 Octillery - not really needed when you have "strong" card-draw support (4 N, 4 Professor Sycamore and another card-draw Supporter)
-1 Acerola - 1 should be sufficient
-2 Nest Ball - not critical

+2 Zygarde EX
+2 Carbink BREAK
+2 Carbink
+1 Brigette - to help setup your bench
+1 Escape Rope
+1 Judge / Shana - another card-draw Supporter
+1 Max Potion - amazing in a deck where 1-energy attackers are used
+1 Olympia - another "switch" typecard
+1 Rescue Stretcher - provides another Pokémon recovery option

+3 F

I filled most of those empty slots with more energy because you want your initial Buzzwole GX to keep inflicting 30/40/50/60-30 damage "until your opponent deals with it..." Even if you lose it after several turns, the board state should be favorable.

I hope you find these comments helpful.
 
With this deck I actually really like the idea of pairing Silvally and Buzzwole, especially with Psychic Memory as a strong answer to Espeon/ Garb. I really don't feel like Regirock EX Is really worth it here aside from having it as a one off to net you one shot kills on stage 1 pokemon with 220hp and one shot kills after butter up the bench with Jet Punch on stage 2 pokemon. If you're worried about prize locking it maybe run one Gladion or something? Espeon EX is really unnecessary IMO. With Strong Energy and Choice Band it's actually not that hard to hit evolution pokemon for KOs especially after some setup with Jet Punch as I mentioned before.

With Silvally GX however you have free retreat on your basics, and if you run Multiswitch you can pass around Strong Energy to help conserve them, and then you also have some late game acceleration to keep the momentum. You can also play Psychic Memory and one shot Espeon.

Personally the deck I'm thinking about running looks something like this:

3 to 4 Buzzwole GX
1 Minior / Zygarde (Fighting type one)
1 Regirock EX
2-2 Silvally GX
1 Sudowoodo (maybe?)
3 Tapu Lele GX

4 Sycamore
3 N
3 Guzma

4 Ultra Ball
4 Max Elixir
3 Choice Band
2 Psychic Memory
3 Multiswitch
1 Rescue Stretcher
1 Super Rod

3 Brooklet Hill
2 Scorched Earth (you could play more of these and include Mallow)

4 Strong Energy
9 Fighting Energy

Of course there's a bunch of other things

@TuxedoBlack I'd like to see your personal decklist if you have one and I'm curious what you think of the Buzzwole/ Silvally combo I've been dreaming up.
 
zygarde feels kind of inferior to buzzwole to me outside of different weakness which... eh
 
Have you considered Shining Jirachi? It can be better than Espeon, say an active Gardy has 60 Damage on it, use Shining Jirachi's attack and it's dead. Of course 2 Rainbow Energy would be necessary, however that also allows you to use Tapu Lele's GX attack
 
This is perhaps the only Pokémon from the upcoming set I'm interested in since I've run its "predescessor" Landorus EX (1 of my all-time favorites Pokémon) for a long time.

In regards to your specific questions:

  1. Personally, I would not even run Buzzwole GX with Regirock EX at all. From my experience, the Regirock EXs will become more of a nuisance/ liability than the +10 damage boost is worth since they will be Guzma'd and used to stall against you. Plus, you could Fighting Fury Belts for some extra damage output. I plan to run my Buzzwole GX with Zygarde EX (another strong, 1-energy attacking F Pokémon that also has 2 other good attacks and/or Carbink BREAK (a Stage 1 Pokémon that can provide some energy-attachment (both F and Strong) acceleration.
  2. To counter Ninetales (BUS), you could simply run a 4-4 Garbodor line consisting of 2 Garbotoxin Garbodors and 2 Trashalance Garbodors. Both of these Garbodors have proven to be quite effective already in a variety of decks. PLUS, since Buzzwole GX has Psychic Weakness, the Garbodor (Trashalanche) can provide some protection; and Garbotoxin Garbodor nullifies Abilities which will also negatively affect a variety of other decks too. Lastly, the Garbodors are all 1-prize targets.
  3. IMO, the only Stadium for this deck is Parallel City given my particular game strategy (which I'm glad to discuss via PM).
In regards to your initial deck list posted above, I suggest for your consideration:

-1 Tapu Lele GX - 2 are quite sufficient
-2 Regirock EX - too much of a liability/nuisance, IMO
-2 Remoraid
-2 Octillery - not really needed when you have "strong" card-draw support (4 N, 4 Professor Sycamore and another card-draw Supporter)
-1 Acerola - 1 should be sufficient
-2 Nest Ball - not critical

+2 Zygarde EX
+2 Carbink BREAK
+2 Carbink
+1 Brigette - to help setup your bench
+1 Escape Rope
+1 Judge / Shana - another card-draw Supporter
+1 Max Potion - amazing in a deck where 1-energy attackers are used
+1 Olympia - another "switch" typecard
+1 Rescue Stretcher - provides another Pokémon recovery option

+3 F

I filled most of those empty slots with more energy because you want your initial Buzzwole GX to keep inflicting 30/40/50/60-30 damage "until your opponent deals with it..." Even if you lose it after several turns, the board state should be favorable.

I hope you find these comments helpful.
First of all thank you for all the great criticism on this list. I have everyone telling me at my league that buzzwole is not going to be good but I have high hopes.

1. I think your right about Regirock. I like the idea of having 1 regirock to hit for 60 w/ a strong energy (ohko on most basics) but then again fury belt would do the job better.
2. I love the idea of being able to run garbodors. Ability lock is so strong right now plus it covers the ninetales matchup.
3. I will definitely be asking about that parallel city strategy :)
4. Would you run garbodor, carbink break, and zygarde together?
 
If you want an Alolan Ninetales out, the regular Regirock coming in Crimson Invasion does 110, so there's your one of tech. Slow, but it's there.

I would also include at least 1 Marshadow GX, well rather probably exactly 1 Marshadow GX. Your deck is full of basic fighting Pokemon with pretty good attacks and the exact same energy costs that you would have on Marshadow (Up to 3 Fighting). You can literally close games with Shadow Hunting for Knuckle Impact, then swinging with Beatdown for a total of 280 damage unmodified. Since Knuckle Impact's restriction is "this Pokemon can't attack durning your next turn," then there's nothing stopping you from doing this to take your last 2 prizes. Even without this kind of strategy, Marshadow GX is effectively an extra Buzzwole GX in terms of offensive capability.

I understand the argument for Po Town, but with Acerola running around and decks like Ho-Oh GX/Volcanion & Tapu Bulu who don't evolve their main attacker either, I would prefer personal consistency and go for Brooklet Hill. With the addition of Brooklet Hill, you can get rid of Nest Ball for more deck space.

I would also consider Carbink BREAK for energy acceleration & restoration as your attackers are all Fighting type. You can even pull back Strong Energy from the discard. This means you can instantly stick 2 Strong Energy onto a Buzzwole, next turn attach for turn, and all of a sudden you're doing 200 damage Knuckle Impact without Regirock EX or Fury Belt.

As a basic deck I would throw in some Max Elixir as well, but you're running only 6 counts of basic energy right now which is very unoptimal for Max Elixir. If you can raise your energy count to at least 8 basic/4 strong, then running 2 Max Elixir can help you accelerate in the mid/late game when your deck is thinner and you're hunting for those Knuckle Impact KOs. You also want some form of energy acceleration in case someone else's deck runs faster than yours and they just ruin your strategy altogether, like a turn 1 Kiawe onto choice banded Ho-Oh GX. You need a plan B.

As for Super Rod vs. Rescue Stretcher, absolutely Rescue Stretcher. Just grab a KO'd Buzzwole GX and stick it back on the bench. I would also definitely make room for a 3rd float stone. I NEVER see float stone when I only run 2, and I only run 2 float stone in decks that run Tapu Koko.

When building your final list, if you don't have room for Espeon EX, just scratch it. With your outlined strategy, you're going to be focusing on KOing the basics in front of you, and depending on match up, you'll want to spread the 30 bench damage to set up future KOs as opposed to consolidate it onto one Pokemon to devolve KO. I don't see Espeon EX as the game winning card in this deck.

I don't know much about this deck or fighting types in general, but these are the things I would recommend looking in to.
hmm thanks for your insight. I will definitely be considering a lot of this in the final list. @TuxedoBlack makes some excellent points as well.
As we reach closer to Crimson Invasion release, I will be updating the decklist.
 
With EX's falling by the wayside you'd probably be preferring the energy protecting Carbink.
 
With EX's falling by the wayside you'd probably be preferring the energy protecting Carbink.
Yeah I was more leaning toward that. The only downside is blocking your own ability with garbodor, but its not much of an issue when the most popular poke that discards energy is Drampa, and you dont need to block abilities against that deck.
 
Yeah I was more leaning toward that. The only downside is blocking your own ability with garbodor, but its not much of an issue when the most popular poke that discards energy is Drampa, and you dont need to block abilities against that deck.
Carbink's ability wouldn't do anything against Righteous Edge, but it still helps with Flare Grunt and Plumeria discarding your basic Fightings.
 
@TuxedoBlack I'd like to see your personal decklist if you have one and I'm curious what you think of the Buzzwole/ Silvally combo I've been dreaming up.
Personally, Silvally GX offers "little" value to Buzzwole GX (as the featured attacker), IMO. Although Silvally GX offers 0 Retreat Cost to your Basic Pokémon, it would be "costly" (Memory Tool, 3 attached energy, etc.) to use it as a potential attacker; and its Ability to provide 0 Retreat Cost to your Basic Pokémon can be nullified. It's also a Stage 1 Pokémon... IMO, there are other "higher priority" cards I would choose over Silvally GX.

3. I will definitely be asking about that parallel city strategy :)
4. Would you run garbodor, carbink break, and zygarde together?
3. I responded to your PM regarding my thoughts about Parallel City - IMO, a fantastic Stadium.
4. I'd definitely run Garbodor and Zygarde EX in a deck with Buzzhole GX. However, Carbink BREAK lost a lot of its "value," since there are much fewer players running EX Pokémon that could be "walled" with Carbink's Safeguard Ability. Further, its an easy KO prize, and Special Charge can be used, if need be, to recover and recycle discarded F and Strong energy. I would not run Carbink at all in my Buzzhole GX deck.

Following is my initial deck draft:

Pokémon (16)
4 Buzzwole GX
2 Garbodor (BKP)
2 Garbodor (SUM)
2 Tapu LeLe GX
4 Trubbish
2 Zygarde EX

Trainers (32)
1 Acerola
1 Brigette
1 Energy Retrieval / Professor's Letter
2 Field Blower
3 Fighting Fury Belt
3 Float Stone
3 Guzma
1 Judge / Shauna
1 Max Potion
3 N
1 Olympia
3 Parallel City
4 Professor Sycamore
1 Super Rod
4 Ultra Ball

Energy (12)
5 Fighting
3 Psychic
4 Strong

My Strategy:
Attack initially with Buzzwole GX till the field is set for 1HKOs or even multiple 1HKOs.

Other cards to consider for inclusion:
Expeon EX - perhaps more of a meta call
Delinquent - for opponent's hand disruption
Special Charge - to recover and recycle discarded Special energy

Comments about certain cards selected:
Garbodor (BKT) - nullifies Abilities, especially Ninetales, which so many decks are dependent upon
Garbodor (SUM) - 1-prize target, strong 1-energy attacker and provides some protection for the Buzzwole GXs
Zygarde EX - another solid, strong 1-energy, secondary attacker with a different Weakness than Buzzwole GX

Energy Retrieval (or Professor's Letter) - there will be times when you'll need a specific energy type; so, this Item can facilitate getting what you exactly need

Judge (or Shauna) - personal preference not to ever run 4 Ns in a deck since 1 of them will unfortunately help my opponent too. This can also be disruptive when played at T1 (if going first and you have no better option)

Parallel City - to limit my opponent's bench size and/or remove unwanted/unneeded Pokémon from my bench
 
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I'm excited for Buzzwole GX. I don't know how it will fare against top tier decks, but I really want it to do well because outside of Lycanroc, which only sees a little play, I feel like we haven't had a solid Fighting-type deck in awhile.

I would run Rainbow Energy over Psychic Energy. Buzzwole has no colorless energy requirements for any of it's attacks so if you start with a Buzzwole and only have Psychic Energy in your hand, the Energy is useless. So I'd recommend switching the Psychic to Rainbow and then replace the Professor's Letter with a Special Charge.
 
I also really like the idea of Buzzwole GX/Silvally GX that CaptZero brought up. I don't know if Garbodor really fits this deck. It does help cover your Psychic-type weakness, but so does Silvally with a Psychic Memory attached. It gives all your Buzzwole free retreat, meaning you could cut the Float Stones to make room for Psychic Memory. It's also a much bulkier attacker than Garbodor that allows you to accelerate energies. Duo and I have talked a lot about what makes Top Tier decks so good and one of the common themes that many of them share is that they're able to accelerate energy. A downside to Silvally is that you're not running DCE so you have to manual attach three energies to it, which is slow. Same with Buzzwole. I think that's this deck's biggest crutch. If you can find a reliable way to accelerate energy then this deck can be really good!
 
I also really like the idea of Buzzwole GX/Silvally GX that CaptZero brought up. I don't know if Garbodor really fits this deck. It does help cover your Psychic-type weakness, but so does Silvally with a Psychic Memory attached. It gives all your Buzzwole free retreat, meaning you could cut the Float Stones to make room for Psychic Memory. It's also a much bulkier attacker than Garbodor that allows you to accelerate energies. Duo and I have talked a lot about what makes Top Tier decks so good and one of the common themes that many of them share is that they're able to accelerate energy. A downside to Silvally is that you're not running DCE so you have to manual attach three energies to it, which is slow. Same with Buzzwole. I think that's this deck's biggest crutch. If you can find a reliable way to accelerate energy then this deck can be really good!
Your points are solid and I think the inclusion of Silvally GX would require overhauling the deck taking that Pokémon into more consideration.
 
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