Alt. Format Glaceon GX/Alolan Ninetales GX Early Deck List

[Duo]

Pokemon x19

Glaceon GX x2
Eevee x3
Alolan Ninetales GX x3
Alolan Nientales BUS x1
Alolan Vulpix x4
Tapu Koko x2
Espeon EX x1
Glaceon EX x1
Tapu Lele GX x2

Supporter x15

Sycamore x4
Cynthia x3
N x3
Guzma x3
Brigette x2

Item x13

Ultra Ball x4
Aqua Patch x4
Choice Band x4
Rescue Stretcher x1

Energy x13

DCE x4
Water Energy x9

I consider this deck to be one of the only decks that I can think of and would be interested in personally playing including stuff from SM5 that can contend with the monsterous amounts of metal support coming out, even despite its metal weakness.

This deck has access to 3 very potent strategies:

1. Complete denial of Lele and all GX abilities from turn 1 of the game.
2. Spread damage, bench damage, and Espeon EX for devolve KOs.
3. If your opponent does get set up with GXs, wall them hard with Alolan Ninetales BUS.

To explain my deck choices a bit:

Only 2 Glaceon GX - You're getting this Pokemon through Energy Evolution Eevee, meaning you don't need to run thick counts because you actually never want to see this in your hand. You always want to Energy Evolution for it. Also, should your opponent manage to set up or be playing a deck that doesn't require abilities to do well, Glaceon GX falls off pretty hard. It's an early game disruptor that doesn't scale well into the late game at all.

Full line up of Alolan Ninetales GX & Vulpix - This is your main attacker, and having 4 Alolan Vulpix means that in the mirror match, you can just beacon for your Pokemon even if you don't have the ability to Lele/Brigette for them.

2 Tapu Koko - Part of your spread damage strategy as well as being a free retreater to help get Glaceon GX into the active on turn 1.

Espeon EX - Pretty much mandatory in any Alolan Ninetales GX deck list as a possible win condition.

2 Tapu Lele GX - Was already the standard count for Alolan Ninetales GX decks due to beacon.

4/3/3 Sycamore/Cynthia/N - This is my personal favorite draw supporter line up come SM5. You've got no Zoroark GX or Octillery, so you need more draw consistency from other sources.

2 Brigette - Increase draw rate without needing Lele.

No Field Blowers - Glaceon GX is a defensive ability, meaning it works on your opponent's turn not your turn, so your opponent has the opportunity to just stick a tool right back on anyway. Field Blowers do literally nothing in this deck since you're not running any Pokemon with draw abilities either.

9 Water Energy - I upped from the standard 8 just because you're going for Energy Evolution Eevee. 9th energy is included to help increase your odds of turn 1 Glaceon GX in active.

Would love to get some feedback on this deck, even if that means combining Glaceon GX with something else completely. I think it's going to be incredibly powerful.

 

[joffreyspikes]

I think you should play 3-3 Glaceon-GX with a thinner (maybe 3-2/1) Ninetales line and 2-2 Zoroark GX in place of 1 Brigette and 1 Sycamore. Other than that I think it's great.

 

[gumball51321]

My guy, Cyrus is busted. Play the special Cyrus. Otherwise you basically take an L to Solgaleo. Oh, and a Glaceon-EX, that also makes the format hate you. And if they choose to attack with Lele, you go into Ninetales and take 2 prizes. Drop an Eevee for a 3rd Glaceon, 4-2 numbers is too klunky, and Glaceon is something you really want hit on T1, so if you really want to, play 4-3, but then you'd have to play a thinner Ninetales line.

 

[joffreyspikes]

My guy, Cyrus is busted. Play the special Cyrus. Otherwise you basically take an L to Solgaleo. Oh, and a Glaceon-EX, that also makes the format hate you. And if they choose to attack with Lele, you go into Ninetales and take 2 prizes. Drop an Eevee for a 3rd Glaceon, 4-2 numbers is too klunky, and Glaceon is something you really want hit on T1, so if you really want to, play 4-3, but then you'd have to play a thinner Ninetales line.

Exactly. Even out the Ninetales and Glaceon lines, I would personally also add Zoroark because we have proved that 3 Stage 1s/2s can work in a slower format with Gardevoir Sylveon. And totally use Cyrus Prism Star. Even though it is once per game it will be completely broken. Annihilates Stage 2 decks.

 

[gumball51321]

Exactly. Even out the Ninetales and Glaceon lines, I would personally also add Zoroark because we have proved that 3 Stage 1s/2s can work in a slower format with Gardevoir Sylveon. And totally use Cyrus Prism Star. Even though it is once per game it will be completely broken. Annihilates Stage 2 decks.

I think adding Zoroark GX only adds problems. You're already playing 2 heavy stage 1 lines, and adding any more at all just clunks everything up. I think the for the most part is fine as-is. I would drop a Koko, since Glaceon does its' job on sniping, drop something for a Float Stone, because Float Stone is just really good. And yeah, even the lines out, add a Cyrus, and my boi will be golden.

 

[Duo]

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I'm kind of more focused on my Solgaleo GX list at the moment so it's going to be a bit before I really reassess this list.

Glaceon EX seems like a good choice here after evening out the lines a bit. I'm still iffy on Cyrus though. It's probably a card I actually have to play under the right circumstances to see how useful he is. All of my theory-ing is telling me that it won't be that great, but I've been wrong before.

I think a 3/2 Glaceon GX line is enough though. Adding extra copies of Glaceon GX won't increase your rate of T1 Glaceon GX because you can't manually evolve from hand T1. You have to Energy Evolution on T1. That's why I have the awkward split of 4/2 because you're going to be searching out Glaceon GX from your deck with your 9 water energy, but I think 3/2 will still be fine since you will definitely still be Brigetting for your Eevee in a lot of games.

So, -1 Eevee, +1 Glaceon EX and I'll just start there with the changes.

 

[Dark Espeon]

My guy, Cyrus is busted. Play the special Cyrus. Otherwise you basically take an L to Solgaleo. Oh, and a Glaceon-EX, that also makes the format hate you. And if they choose to attack with Lele, you go into Ninetales and take 2 prizes. Drop an Eevee for a 3rd Glaceon, 4-2 numbers is too klunky, and Glaceon is something you really want hit on T1, so if you really want to, play 4-3, but then you'd have to play a thinner Ninetales line.

You are definitely onto something here when it comes to Cyrus Prism Star. Glaceon GX loves this card.

 

[Dark Espeon]

Hi Duo,

Not sure on the partner choice. Alolan Ninetales shares the same weakness to metal and does not benefit the snipe theme that much. The only benefit of Alolan Ninetales I can see at first glance is that it has an attack that can potentially score some ohkos. However, it would need some Professor Kukui to so so. I somehow have the feeling that Alolan Ninetales is holding Glaceon GX down.

The main idea of Glaceon GX is that it wants to be active all the time and leave the opponent with little options to either Guzma or Escape Rope around it. This implies that the more Basic Pokémon you bench yourself the more likely it becomes for the opponent to play around Glaceon GX. Guzma is not that much of an issue turn one but Escape Rope is. In addition Escape Rope is an easy means to handle the Glaceon GX lock and constitutes a great disruptive card on its own. Just watch how many times during the next few games a forced switch between an active and benched Pokémon of your choice would cribble your decks tactic.

I considered a variant of Glaceon that is much more centered around Glaceon GX itself. This necessarily implies a slimmer Pokémon line and a limited amount of assistance attackers that are benched onyl shortly before they are needed. The main idea is to start with Eevee and evolve into Glaceon GX turn one.

Glaceon GX want the opponent to have as few benched Pokémon as possible. The main reason behind this is that Frozen Bullet is able to 2hko and soften up the bench. The GX attack can usually take out the weakend bench Pokémon on its own. This is where the turn one Bridgette denial aspect comes into play. However, there will be times where the opponent can fill the bench anyway. In these circumstances use Cyrus Prism Star to undo the benefit. While this forces you to use Tapu Lele GX to obtain it from the deck it seems to be worth the effort. The main idea I had in mind for Glaceon is to lockdown their setup and attempt to bench them.

Here is my first initial draft that I came up with when Glaceon GX was first revealed:

FROZEN STAR

Pokémon (12):

• 1 Tapu Fini GX (beatdown)
  
• 3 Glaceon GX (beatdown)
  
• 4 Eevee SM1 (evolution)
• 2 Tapu Lele GX (search)
• 2 Latios (beatdown)

Trainer (35):

• 1 Pokémon Fan Club (search)
  
• 4 Professor Sycamore (draw)
• 1 Cyrus Prism Star (denial)
• 3 Guzma (control)
• 3 Cynthia (draw)
• 3 N (draw)
• 1 Rescue Stretcher (retrieval)
• 3 Choice Band (beatdown)
• 3 Aqua Patch (accelerate)
  
• 1 Field Blower (discard)
• 4 Float Stone (retreat)
  
• 4 Ultra Ball (search)
• 4 Po Town (beatdown)

Energy (13):

• 4 Double Colorless Energy
• 9 Water Energy

STRATEGY:

Go first and start with Eevee. Eveolve into Glaceon GX turn one and do not bench other Pokémon thus far. Next turn attach Double Colorless and attack with Frozen Bullet. Use Po Town to hurt evolution decks a little more in this process. On the third turn bench another Eevee and evolve it into Glaceon GX. Tapu Fini GX and Latios are used as alternate attackers that work with the damage spread tactic of this deck but the focus should still be on Gleceon GX as much as possible. Tapu Lele GX is mainly used to obtain supporters and Cyrus Prism Star in case the opponent managed to fill her or his bench. Glaceon likes to fight a limited amount of opposing attackers and Cyrus Prism star helps the deck to accomplish this aim. In a nutshell Glaceon GX attempts to win by benching the opponent in time.

Would be interested in your thoughts on this variant to run Glaceon GX.

 

[Duo]

I included in the Alolan Ninetales line up was for several reasons.

1. Alolan Vulpix allows you to search for your Pokemon to help you get set up should you be facing another Glaceon GX deck who goes first and denies your ability to Lele for a supporter like Pokemon Fan Club or Brigette. We all know that Alolan Vulpix is the best set up Pokemon in the game right now, so capitalizing on it seems like a good idea.

2. Alolan Ninetales GX will actually be taking a lot of easy KOs with Blizzard Edge after Glaceon GX softens up the bench. If you attack twice with Glaceon GX and keep the bench damage on the same target, it will have 60 damage on it, and blizzard edge with a choice band can do 190 to total 250 damage. The snipe damage is also fairly relevant since Cosmoems have 80 HP. If you attack with Glaceon GX and snipe with Alolan Ninetales GX, you can put 80 damage on a manually evolved Solgaleo and devolve KO it with Espeon EX the next turn. Not a common play, but an available play.

3. Having access to Alolan Ninetales BUS makes it so that you have the ability to deny metal GXs. You can still get picked off by Registeel and Solgaleo Prism Star, but if your opponent is committed to a GX strategy, Alolan Ninetales BUS will win you the game.

If anything, I could see swapping the ratios to have a 4/3 Glaceon GX line up and a 3/2(1) Alolan Ninetales GX line up since in a deck like this, Alolan Ninetales is the support Pokemon. I don't think I'd go any smaller than a 3/2(1) line if you want to include Alolan Ninetales at all.

I can see Cyrus as a useful card in here since Glaceon GX prevents your opponent from using Leles, so it doesn't matter as much if you shuffle them back into your opponent's deck.

I'm kind of iffy about Po Town in this deck because you aren't hitting for impressive numbers ever. Even if you Po Town Solgaleo down to 190 health or 220 health, you're still taking 2 hit KOs on everything, and it does literally nothing in the mirror match since your opponent will also be energy evolving to dodge the effect. This isn't like Buzzwole GX with Po Town who can hit for 200 damage with a fighting fury belt and strong energy in which case the Po Town generates free OHKOs for you. If anything, I'm actually considering Po Town in my variant with Alolan Ninetales GX since it makes Blizzard Edge KOs quite a bit easier.

I'm also thinking about running a 2/2 Milotic line in this deck for the ultimate disruption. If your opponent's set up ever gets out of hand, just TLC something back into the deck since Glaceon GX naturally pierces onto the bench. If there was a ever a chance to make the new Milotic work in a water deck, I would say this is it. If you Cyrus them and then TLC them, they have 1 Pokemon left on the bench. The issue with Milotic is that if you play the mirror match, your Feebas are free KOs for opponent Glaceon GXs. If Feebas had even 40 HP it would be much more viable, but the 30 HP is utterly unplayable with Glaceon GX and Buzzwole GX running around piercing the bench for 30.

I don't think there's anything wrong with the way you approach the deck. I just think you absolutely need an option to take a healthy KO when needed, and that's how I think about the deck. I don't think Glaceon GX will keep your opponent at bay for the whole game.

 

[monsterenergy77]

what about instead of running Ninetails GX you ran Lapras GX, that way you are still doing the same dmg as blizzard edge for those OHKO while adding variety so if you run into a metal deck you wont insta lose for weakness. you could still keep the alolan vulpix's in case of the mirror match. The po towns aren't a terrible add either, if you were ever to get stuck where for some reason you couldn't frozen bullet the bench the way you wanted or couldn't keep up bench dmg the po town hlps you in doing that dmg to set up for more OHKO's with your lapras or ninetails. I probably wouldnt run 4 though maybe 2 or 3

 

[gumball51321]

Hi Duo,

Not sure on the partner choice. Alolan Ninetales shares the same weakness to metal and does not benefit the snipe theme that much. The only benefit of Alolan Ninetales I can see at first glance is that it has an attack that can potentially score some ohkos. However, it would need some Professor Kukui to so so. I somehow have the feeling that Alolan Ninetales is holding Glaceon GX down.

The main idea of Glaceon GX is that it wants to be active all the time and leave the opponent with little options to either Guzma or Escape Rope around it. This implies that the more Basic Pokémon you bench yourself the more likely it becomes for the opponent to play around Glaceon GX. Guzma is not that much of an issue turn one but Escape Rope is. In addition Escape Rope is an easy means to handle the Glaceon GX lock and constitutes a great disruptive card on its own. Just watch how many times during the next few games a forced switch between an active and benched Pokémon of your choice would cribble your decks tactic.

I considered a variant of Glaceon that is much more centered around Glaceon GX itself. This necessarily implies a slimmer Pokémon line and a limited amount of assistance attackers that are benched onyl shortly before they are needed. The main idea is to start with Eevee and evolve into Glaceon GX turn one.

Glaceon GX want the opponent to have as few benched Pokémon as possible. The main reason behind this is that Frozen Bullet is able to 2hko and soften up the bench. The GX attack can usually take out the weakend bench Pokémon on its own. This is where the turn one Bridgette denial aspect comes into play. However, there will be times where the opponent can fill the bench anyway. In these circumstances use Cyrus Prism Star to undo the benefit. While this forces you to use Tapu Lele GX to obtain it from the deck it seems to be worth the effort. The main idea I had in mind for Glaceon is to lockdown their setup and attempt to bench them.

Here is my first initial draft that I came up with when Glaceon GX was first revealed:

FROZEN STAR

Pokémon (12):

• 1 Tapu Fini GX (beatdown)
  
• 3 Glaceon GX (beatdown)
  
• 4 Eevee SM1 (evolution)
• 2 Tapu Lele GX (search)
• 2 Latios (beatdown)

Trainer (35):

• 1 Pokémon Fan Club (search)
  
• 4 Professor Sycamore (draw)
• 1 Cyrus Prism Star (denial)
• 3 Guzma (control)
• 3 Cynthia (draw)
• 3 N (draw)
• 1 Rescue Stretcher (retrieval)
• 3 Choice Band (beatdown)
• 3 Aqua Patch (accelerate)
  
• 1 Field Blower (discard)
• 4 Float Stone (retreat)
  
• 4 Ultra Ball (search)
• 4 Po Town (beatdown)

Energy (13):

• 4 Double Colorless Energy
• 9 Water Energy

STRATEGY:

Go first and start with Eevee. Eveolve into Glaceon GX turn one and do not bench other Pokémon thus far. Next turn attach Double Colorless and attack with Frozen Bullet. Use Po Town to hurt evolution decks a little more in this process. On the third turn bench another Eevee and evolve it into Glaceon GX. Tapu Fini GX and Latios are used as alternate attackers that work with the damage spread tactic of this deck but the focus should still be on Gleceon GX as much as possible. Tapu Lele GX is mainly used to obtain supporters and Cyrus Prism Star in case the opponent managed to fill her or his bench. Glaceon likes to fight a limited amount of opposing attackers and Cyrus Prism star helps the deck to accomplish this aim. In a nutshell Glaceon GX attempts to win by benching the opponent in time.

Would be interested in your thoughts on this variant to run Glaceon GX.

The list isn't that bad, but why on earth would you play Fan Club over Brigette?

 

[Dark Espeon]

The list isn't that bad, but why on earth would you play Fan Club over Brigette?

The idea was to enable me to minimize the number of benched Pokémon and enable me to search for Eevee and something else mainly. I feel that part of the success with Glaceon GX resides in the ability of the deck to minimize the number of non-Glaceon GX Pokémon on the bench. In the ideal case you want nothing but an active Glaceon GX and a benched one on the field. This disables the opponent to Guzma or Escape Rope around its effect. By using an evolved Pokémon as a secondary attacker you provide the opponent with a mean to break the lockdown. Bridgette benches three Pokémon but Pokémon Fan Club searches for two Basic Pokémon and allows me to determine when to use them. I am still not pleased with my list because I feel Glaceon GX needs a radical different approach to be effective. The main aim should be to slow the opponent down in terms of the Pokémon that they can power up while spreading damage around.

 

[monsterenergy77]

The idea was to enable me to minimize the number of benched Pokémon and enable me to search for Eevee and something else mainly. I feel that part of the success with Glaceon GX resides in the ability of the deck to minimize the number of non-Glaceon GX Pokémon on the bench. In the ideal case you want nothing but an active Glaceon GX and a benched one on the field. This disables the opponent to Guzma or Escape Rope around its effect. By using an evolved Pokémon as a secondary attacker you provide the opponent with a mean to break the lockdown. Bridgette benches three Pokémon but Pokémon Fan Club searches for two Basic Pokémon and allows me to determine when to use them. I am still not pleased with my list because I feel Glaceon GX needs a radical different approach to be effective. The main aim should be to slow the opponent down in terms of the Pokémon that they can power up while spreading damage around.

The issue with this strategy tho is that you are relying on glaceon to much, the ability lock is extremely good turn 1 to block lele into brigette but than after that it becomes more situational. You gotta think about your side of the field as well, you must assume u will probably need to lele into a brigette or ur fan club and with that list you did put you only have a 44% chance of starting eevee, so alot of the times you will have other pokemon on your bench for them to guzma up anyway.

Even if they do guzma something different up, its not the biggest issue, sure they get to use a ability or 2 but they needed to burn their support to do so just to use their ability and they cant brigette on turn 1 if they guzma. You are still slowing their set up by blocking lele turn 1 but if your just focused on blocking lele or abilities you are losing out on other strategy's and opening yourself up for more weaknesses.

I think the best strategy is to run glaceon as long as you can early getting bench dmg, blocking some abilities and getting 2 hit ko's all while building up something for 1 shot potential like the ninetailes gx or lapras gx. If your just running glaceon and building up glaceons on the bench you will have a quick start but slow execution needing to 2 shot or more and this just gives time for the opponent to set up and one shot you late game.

 

[Duo]

I don't like the Lapras for a few reasons.

1. The 20 HP difference is actually important against anything that isn't metal. 190 is a magic number that a lot of main attackers can hit that make it no effort OHKOs for your opponent.

2. I prefer the discard energy cost as opposed to can't attack next turn cost because we play aqua patch to make that energy discard cost a good thing.

3. Against Solgaleo who can hit for 220 with DM Necrozma and 230 with Solgaleo's Sunsteel Strike, weakness is actually not that big of a deal anyway. We're going to die in one attack one way or another. We can use our Leles, Espeon EX, or Glaceon EX to take a hit from the new Solgaleo GX who hits for 120 if we have to.

But maybe my concerns are irrelivent and playing 2 Lapras with a 2/1 Alolan Vulpix/Alolan Ninetales BUS line up is the way to go.

I do think that this deck will still struggle immensely against Solgaleo either way, (mostly Registeel and/or Solgaleo Prism Star), but I also think it has the ability to win against pretty much everyone else.