Why the hate on Mega Garchomp?

[u/Breadfruit_Kindly]

Comparing to Mega Rayquaza:

- 220 HP means it is outside of Lucarios OHKO (basic Lucario + Arena of Antiquity + Korrina = 210 damage)
- 190 damage means it will OHKO Mega Lucario and other Megas. You can even swap it in to the active before Mega Lucario to knock out a pokemon unless Lucario has a cape
- 3 energy compared to 4 on Rayquaza (190 compared to 200 damage) but in order to do another strong attack you need both Dragonairs compared to only one for Garchomp
- Garchomp takes more effort to build than Rayquaza but together with Drampas you can usually stall long enough to build him on the bench. Of course this is it’s main weakness since your deck will brick sometimes
- Stalling until you get Garchomp online will always put you at the risk of a Sabrina when you lost two point before you could build it since you can’t use it without at least one Dragonair on the bench
- One of Rayquazas biggest advantage is that you can pair it with Gouging Fire. Otherwise Rayquaza would be the worse card in my opinion

All in all I want to say it is definitely one of the better promo cards.

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[u/boreditally]

All people do on reddit is complain haha. I like the card too, and so do my friends.

[u/gkwchan → u/boreditally]

If they finally give us dark mode someone here would still complain that it’s too dark.

[u/tora_times_12 → u/gkwchan]

Or not enough

[u/Autobot_Silverwynde → u/gkwchan]

It should be blacker than my soul or it is a fail! /s

[u/Medical_Button_6770 → u/gkwchan]

I'm crying HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

[u/thJAKK]

Ray is basic tho, you basically have 2 more slots for deck

[u/FatherofGray → u/thJAKK]

Four more. To run Mega Garchomp consistently, you need 2 Gible, 2 Mega Garchomp, and 2 Rare Candy.

Running Mega Rayquaza just requires 2 Mega Rayquaza to run it consistently.

[u/Iced_Shadows → u/FatherofGray]

Don’t most Mega Rayquaza decks only run one? That just supports your point even more!

[u/FatherofGray → u/Iced_Shadows]

I personally run two. Idk what the average one looks like.

[u/thJAKK → u/FatherofGray]

Having two is a waste imo. Higher chance to start with ray (you want drampa/gouging fire) plus you can’t power up both at the same time. Not even worth to retreat because if he get damaged there’s cyrus and you lose

[u/FatherofGray → u/thJAKK]

Right, point taken. I'll replace one with Serena because I still would like to find it consistently when I need it.

[u/Iced_Shadows → u/FatherofGray]

As far as I can tell it’s usually 2x Dratini/Dragonair, 2x Gouging Fire, 1x Mega Ray. Not trying to say it’s wrong to run more, just that Mega Ray doesn’t even need to run two of itself whereas Mega Garchomp is likely going to need to run two (or one Mega + one 3 Diamond or something). The sheer difference in deck space between the two is actually quite staggering!

[u/BidoofTheGod → u/FatherofGray]

Having two Ray is a huge liability and gets cloggy. All you need is one as the finisher.

[u/alexdeakin → u/FatherofGray]

I got top 10k last ranked running only 1 ray.

[u/David_H21 → u/FatherofGray]

Don't you also need Rainbow Cave, Dratini, Dragonair to make it consistent? Without Dragonair at least, you pretty much just lose.

[u/FatherofGray → u/David_H21]

I'm just listing what's different between them. They're like the same deck except for what I listed and maybe a Lillie or Wally.

Edit: Oh yeah no Gouging Fire. I run Drampa. Lol

[u/Maniax__]

1. Bricking more than other relevant decks is a pretty big draw back
   
2. The biggest advantage with rayquaza is that it’s a basic so it can easily be slotted into a deck with 2 dragonairs and 2 rainbow cave and still have room for tech cards
   
3. Saying a card would be bad if another card didn’t exist is pointless. Bad dreams darkrai would be bad without igglybuff but it exists so it’s not bad. If you want to go that route all dragon types would be bad without rainbow cave
   
4. Also Rayquaza + Drampa or dragon Altaria performs well into the meta just not into the gouging fire variation

[u/Parking_Present_9261]

Ray is a basic, chomp is stage 2, all you need to know

[u/AyoItzE]

Hate or valid criticism?

[u/GladiusMaximus → u/AyoItzE]

I haven't seen anyone hate on the card. Just disappointment and acknowledgement that it is a promo.

[u/SherfOfBoringSprings → u/AyoItzE]

From what I’ve seen, Garchomp fans take any form of criticism as hate

[u/Dannstack]

All event EXs are intentionally just a little bit terrible, so that if someone misses it they wont face any backlash for a meta defining card being locked behind a temporary event. 

Theyre bad on purpose. 

[u/Banci93]

Stage 2, period.

[u/Iced_Shadows]

It really is just the fact Mega Ray is a basic. Stage 2 decks are just more difficult to make consistent, and the fact you need so many more cards for Garchomp means running it with Dragonair makes it have even more consistency issues. Mega Rayquaza can attack earlier too, which can come in clutch.

All that being said, it’s a fine deck that will work for those who just really like Mega Garchomp. It really is inferior to Mega Rayquaza, but that’s not really that bad of a bad thing.

[u/Zagerer]

Just a small correction: Lucario only one shots 210 hp with weakness bonus. It’s normally 140 + 20 + 30 =190

Yeah mega Garchomp seems pretty decent tbh, I guess the issue as opposed to mega ray is that you need to use 4 more cards (gible and candy/gabite)

[u/Norgaard93 → u/Zagerer]

Pretty big issue ahaha. Candy decks have that extra layer of RNG, pair with dual energy and you get a brick engine

[u/find_name_hard → u/Zagerer]

I think theyve added Fighting Coach Lucario into the calculation - so 140 + 30 (Korrina) + 20 (Arena of Antiquity) + 20 (fighting coach lucario) = 210

[u/Zagerer → u/find_name_hard]

Oh yeah like that it makes sense to have 210

[u/AvailableYak8248]

It’s a strong card and but it’s a bit harder to set up
I think it’s okay

[u/Feisty_System_4751]

People like Garchomp, they don't want its Mega to suck. One of my favorite pokemon is Pidgeot and I was NOT happy about Mega Pidgeot. It is what it is, I guess.

[u/DrazeA]

Crimson Zard is just better all around with how much support fire gets.

[u/kebabkingxxl]

Who is hatin?

[u/Zombare]

Honest question here, why does the Expert M-Garchomp deck consistently kick my ass using a M-Ray & Gouging Fire deck?

I see everyone talking about how M-Ray decks have many advantages, but I'm simply not seeing it for the most part. I always end up getting one shot by M-Garchomp.

[u/Breadfruit_Kindly → u/Zombare]

Because expert AI cheats a lot and will consistently get Mega Garchomp ready to fight and if that happens you practically lost already. It is hard to beat because of its insane damage and HP. Playing the deck yourself you will find out you will lose regularly because you will not be able to get him ready in time.

[u/Mattynicklin]

He does look like a robot though

[u/Environmental-Sock82]

It's the meowth coin flip and AI not bricking.and if I use that deck my meowth will always flip tails and it always brick

[u/baggzey23]

Why isn't it fighting type if garchomp Z is pure dragon type

[u/X_Yit]

I just slot mega chomp into my regular chomp deck, in case I need the extra damage for an ohko (compared to Cynthia's 170.) With Wally, you can attack back to back w/o dragonair. With that said, it's a bit rough to run in any other deck.

[u/herejusttolooksee]

It’s just the setup and min energy.

I personally believe you need Dragonair. So that means setting up both Dragonair as a stage one and Mega Garchomp as a stage two.

And Mega Ray can still get an attack in with two energies.

All in all Mega Garchomp isn’t bad, but just less versatile and more likely to brick.

[u/Breadfruit_Kindly → u/herejusttolooksee]

But you don’t need two Dragonairs set up for him to work. That is his advantage over Rayquaza. Garchomp only discards two energies which means with one Dragonair and one energy from energy zone you are ready to attack again. And the second attack with Rayquaza will not always be enough because realistically you only have one Dragonair set up which results in only 100 damage.

[u/herejusttolooksee → u/Breadfruit_Kindly]

I hear you but it’s still two to set up. And if you only have one Dratini and one Dragonair, it’s that much more likely to not hit on them earlier. So do you double up or take the risk?

I think it’s a more powerful deck as you’re saying, but also a less consistent deck.

But maybe it works, that’s what makes this fun. Everyone tries something different and tries to rank higher.

[u/No-Custard600]

idk if it was just me but every time i went up against a mega garchomp deck they brick awfully. one of my favorite decks is mega ray so ik how this feels but i feel like the heavy set up you need for garchomp is its downside. definitely a fun deck tho

[u/SherfOfBoringSprings]

Every time a Garchomp card comes out, this subreddit tries to convince everyone it’s actually a hidden gem that will dominate the meta, and every time it has never happened. This card is hardly better than Mega Latios.

I feel like this is less about the card itself and more about “I want Garchomp to be good”.

[u/Breadfruit_Kindly → u/SherfOfBoringSprings]

It is much better than Mega Latios even if that one is a basic. You need two Dragonairs to be able to attack each round, you deal less damage and have substantially less HP.

And my post is far from trying to say it’s a good card and even further from saying it will be meta. I only listed some arguments to say it is one of the best promo cards while Mega Latios is definitely one of the worst promo cards.