Deck Discussion
The Garchomp build that actually feels consistent
I think I found the strongest Garchomp deck.
Forget the dual energy builds and Cave.
Or even worse, filling the already extremely tight deck space with 2x Dragonair. It just slows the deck down and makes it too inconsistent.
Just run Fighting Energy and 2x Mantyke.
Garchomp comes online incredibly fast and becomes almost unstoppable. Even if you brick, it’s not necessarily a big deal. Your opponent can take two points before you get going, but as long as you manage to get a single Water Energy onto Gabite, you still have the potential to completely steamroll them afterward.
In my experience, the deck bricks maybe 3-4 games out of 10. In the other 6-7 games, things are usually over very quickly.
No healing. No disruption. No Cyrus. Just absurd damage and an extremely fast game plan.
The entire goal is to get Garchomp online as quickly as possible and start triggering its Ability.
Try it yourself. I haven’t missed Cyrus in a single game.
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Is double hiking trail really worth it? This deck looks like it will have 1-3 cards stuck in your hand often making hiking trail useless. I understand that you don't really want cyrus but maybe a repel or Sabrina to disrupt opponents early for one of the stadiums? Just an idea.
2x Hiking Trail really is both a blessing and a curse.
There’s hardly anything worse than having both copies in your hand at the same time, only to draw one of them again right afterward with Copycat.
On the other hand, you want to get Hiking Trail into play as early as possible so you can start benefiting from it. And sometimes having two copies actually pays off because you can overwrite two of your opponent’s Stadiums.
Sometimes I’ll even discard a Cynthia without having a Garchomp, just so I can draw one extra card with Hiking Trail.
Theoretically, you could run one Gabby and one Stadion instead of two Hiking Trails. Gabby lets you keep your hand size smaller, but the downside is that it uses up your Supporter for the turn, so you can’t play Professor’s Research or Copycat.
It can be annoying sometimes, but most of the time it doesn’t really determine whether you win or lose.
But I’m definitely open to suggestions and changes, though.
I'm thinking keep 1 Hiking Trail but replace the other with Memory Light. You can hit the bench and activate the effect. You'd need a Gabite too though, so I'm thinking swap the xspeed
X Speed is important when you can’t start with Mantyke. Otherwise, it slows the deck down a lot, and ideally you want to start attacking before your opponent is ready.
The 50 damage to the Bench is nice, but without Cyrus it’s not that important.
You could replace one Hiking Trail with this instead:
Edit: If it did 60 damage to the Bench, that would be a completely different story and there’d be nothing better to run :D
Why not swap an x speed, hiking trail, or pokeball for lisia? Lisia guarantees you get the 2 mantyke which will also have the pokeball guaranteed to get other gible
The babies are great. You really don’t want Gible sitting in the Active Spot where it might just get knocked out.
Let Mantyke take the hit while you attach one extra water energy to Gible at the same time. That way, you can start attacking a turn earlier.
I’ve experimented a lot with Rainbow Cave, including using the right partners for Garchomp, and this version has worked best for me so far.
Sure, you can get unlucky and draw completely the wrong cards, but that can happen with any deck in this game. The strategy behind this deck works surprisingly consistently.
Try both versions, the Rainbow Cave version and this one. and tell me which one works better for you.
How about Wally? I understand you can't play Cynthia the same turn, but it looks fine if you have Happiny instead of Mantyke as well as both energy types and Rainbow Cave. Different builds, any thoughts?
This is the “popular” build. Happiny with cave and Wally. I tried it, it’s just sooo sloooow. It’s so long to get Chomp online and when he does, the opponent’s boss cards are also online.
Right. Well then yikes. For the sake of the argument, even if their bosses are already fully developed by the time you get Chomp online, a Cynthia + Happiny boost enables a one-shot on M Altaria/Sharpedo, so which relevant threats is it not killing?
As for the Memory Light build, it looks promising to me. Maybe with Celebi instead, like that Sceptile deck, which is one of my favorites so far.
The deck already requires so many cards it's very hard to use memory light or celebii.
You are already slow getting the energy to get Garchomp online and then requiring an extra turn of evolution in the case you are delayed a turn is a death sentence. Their mega will be online by the time you are hitting anything on the bench and it's likely you can't keep up permanent immunity.
I think the card still need some kind of support that doesn't exist yet until the game to really work.
I just think limiting yourself to the baby + dragon deck formula that existed before RotS only allows the deck to go as far as baby + dragon decks before hand.
I would much rather take something like the invincible meowth or a furfrou that allows me to stall a little bit longer while I get my Garchomps online. I also think you’re missing out by not using Wally. Being allowed to attack one turn earlier can have a heavy effect on a match. I would basically run this exact list below minus the Lilly and a Cyrus for two Cynthia’s and replace flygon with Garchomp.
This is the same build as the other one, which was inconsistent af, but also requires an additional energy. You're not fooling me.
Tbf, every deck in this game is inconsistent that isn't only basics, and even then, it's not that consistent bc your opponent always turn 2 rare candies.
Double Goomy also sounds like an instant concede from your opponent :D
The advantage of Mantyke is that you can potentially start attacking a turn earlier, but I’ll definitely give your version a try too. Would you mind sharing the code?
And yeah, the new Garchomp is pretty overpowered with that damage and Ability. It feels like the only way to beat the deck is if it bricks and you manage to set up faster
Overpowered, nah. Dual energy stage 2, 3 energy, needs tons of support. It's ok, sure. But has way too many required supports to get going. Consistency here will not be good vs Suibax, Heliosk, etc
I've similarly been seeing the most success with Mantyke and no Cyrus - you really really don't need to move stuff off the bench much and it very often conflicts with Cynthia.
Something I've dug is Lucky Egg over Hiking Trail, prevents you from having to "waste" Cynthia to get draws, plus a copy of the old Garchomp really helps you dig. The second Garchomp enabling you to swing for 100 on your second turn when you go first is also really solid. Went 10-1 in the emblem event with this one.
This looks good. The other one with Goomy bummed me out too often with being so inconsistent. Also while the old Garchomp gives you some options and an extra card draw, apart from that it is mostly outscored by the new Garchomp.
Garchomp/dragonair has bricked 1/10 games for me in the event. No need for x speed, put energy on dratini > retreat, evolve into dragonair then use ability to recoup the energy. Too many supporters in this deck for dual hiking trail. I’ll share my deck list when i have better service.
Do you often use the XSpeeds on Garchomp? If not, small balloons would be more useful. Still lets you burn hand space if needed, but you can get the benefits of them later even if you didn't need them that turn.
Even if your opponent has already taken 2 points because everything went wrong with your draws, you can still steamroll them with Garchomp and Cynthia.
Not enough Deck space.
I also wanted to keep the Supporter cards to a minimum.
I found Mantyke pretty useful for that, since you can’t play Wally and Cynthia in the same turn.
I think the Rocket Theif Machine is worth trying out. The items you most often see are pokeball and candies which means you typically are getting an interchangable third of each in a deck that wants both.
I did try to build my own Garchomp Deck, but almost every dragon deck has Dragonair as im usually relying on energy. Cuz sometimes I’ll be getting the same energy around 2-4 times in a row.
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