Pokémon TCG: Expanded Deck Tech - Garbodor VMax (Poison Box) - 2025 Update!

Today, we'll bring back another forgotten Pokémon from Sword & Shield: Garbodor VMAX EVS 101, who has a very interesting ability and attack. The ability lets us attach 2 tools to it, and the attack both poisons the enemy Pokémon and prevents the opponent from retreating it.

The Scarlet & Violet sets brought us a few great Pokémon for poison combos, like Pecharunt ex SFA 39, so this list plays many of them as well. Without further ado, let's see it!

Decklist

Deck Structure

Garbodor VMax: The Main Attacker

Its ability, Rubbish Collecting, lets us attach 2 tools to it at the same time and basically ignore the traditional Pokémon TCG rules that only let us attach 1 tool to a Pokémon at a time.

The tools we can use in this strategy are Binding Mochi PRE 95, Rugged Helmet CRE 152, Tool Jammer BST 136, and Forest Seal Stone SIT 156.

As for its main attack, G-Max Malodor, it deals 120 damage, poisons the enemy Pokémon, and prevents the opponent from retreating it in the following turn. This means they can't retreat it in the usual way, with energies. Instead, they'll have to do it with any cards that let you switch Pokémon, like Switch MEG 130, Escape Rope PRC 127, and similar.

Recursive Pokémon

"Baby" Pokémon

► Brute Bonnet sv4 123's ability, Toxic Powder, only works if we attach Ancient Booster Energy Capsule TEF 140 to this Pokémon, but, if we do, it'll poison enemy Pokémon.

In fact, it poisons both active Pokémon (yours and the opponent's). Like so, we'll be able to use Binding Mochi PRE 95 on Garbodor VMAX EVS 101 to deal an extra 40 damage!

► Munkidori PRE 44's ability, Adrena-Brain, lets us move 3 damage counters from our Pokémon to any enemy Pokémon, but only if we attach 1 Basic Darkness Energy SFA 98 to Munkidori.

The idea is to use these damage counters to knock out Pokémon Garbodor VMAX EVS 101 can't, as it actually doesn't deal a lot of damage.

"Rule Box" Pokémon

► Crobat V PR-SW SWSH110's ability, Dark Asset, draws until we have 6 cards in hand.

► Weavile-GX UNM 132's ability, Shadow Connection, lets us move any Basic Darkness Energy SFA 98 attached to our Pokémon.

► Pecharunt ex SFA 39's ability, Subjugation Chains, lets us move our Darkness Pokémon around (except for Pecharunt ex itself). If we do, the Pokémon we move will be poisoned.

With it, we'll move Garbodor VMAX EVS 101 from our bench to our active spot, for instance, and poison it on purpose. That way, we can also use Binding Mochi PRE 95 on it to deal more damage.

►Finally, Radiant Hisuian Sneasler LOR 123's ability, Poison Peak, puts 2 damage counters on each poisoned enemy Pokémon in between turns, which is also great with Garbodor VMAX EVS 101's attack.

Trainers

Supporters

► Red & Blue CEC 202 will be great specifically with Weavile-GX UNM 132 because its second effect lets us get any evolution Pokémon GX from our deck as well as 2 basic energies and attach them to that Pokémon GX. However, we'll have to discard two cards from our hand to get the energies and attach them.

This means that, when we put Weavile-GX UNM 132 in play, we'll be able to get 2 Basic Darkness Energy SFA 98 from our deck and use its ability, Shadow Connection, earlier.

► Iono sv2 185 sabotages the opponent's hand and gives us new cards according to how many Prize cards we have.

► Arven sv3 186 lets us filter items and tools from our deck.

► Janine's Secret Art PRE 112 lets us attach energies to our Darkness Pokémon, more specifically 2 of them, 1 Basic Darkness Energy SFA 98 to 2 Pokémon. If we attach an energy to our active Pokémon this way, it will be poisoned.

The idea is to use this card on our active Garbodor VMAX EVS 101 so that we can use Binding Mochi PRE 95 on it, as we've mentioned.

► Raihan EVS 152 recycles and lets us attach 1 basic energy from our discard pile to 1 of our Pokémon. After that, we can get any card from our deck. However, we can only use this card if one of our Pokémon was knocked out on the previous turn.

► Guzma BUS 115 lets us move our Pokémon around, more specifically a benched Pokémon with our active Pokémon. But before, the opponent has to do it as well. They get to pick which Pokémon.

Items to Get Pokémon

► Battle VIP Pass FST 225 only works on the very first turn, but it lets us get 2 basic Pokémon from our deck and put them straight on our bench.

► Quick Ball FST 237 lets us get a basic Pokémon from our deck if we also discard a card from our hand.

► Ultra Ball BRS 150 lets us get a Pokémon (basic or evolution) from our deck if we discard two cards from our hand.

► Hisuian Heavy Ball ASR 146 lets us get a basic Pokémon from our Prize cards.

Items to Heal Garbodor VMax

Max Potion heals a Pokémon entirely but forces us to discard all the energies attached to it as well.

That won't be an issue, actually: the combo is moving these energies attached to Garbodor VMAX EVS 101 with Weavile-GX UNM 132's ability to another Pokémon, healing Garbodor entirely, and then putting them back on Garbodor!

Items to Recycle Cards

Ordinary Rod SSH 171 gives us three options:

1) Recycle 2 Pokémon (evolution or basic) from the discard pile and shuffle them back into our deck.

2) Recycle 2 basic energies.

3) Recycle both 2 basic energies and 2 Pokémon.

VS Seeker PHF 109 is the most important item in this list because it recycles 1 supporter from the discard pile and puts it in our hand.

Tools

Ancient Booster Energy Capsule TEF 140 activates Brute Bonnet sv4 123's ability, which poisons both active Pokémon.

It also gives 60 HP to the Ancient Pokémon it is attached to and makes it immune to special conditions.

Binding Mochi PRE 95 makes our active Pokémon deal more damage when it is poisoned.

Brute Bonnet sv4 123 is an essential part of the Garbodor VMAX EVS 101 combo, but a few other cards in this list also activate the main effect, like Pecharunt ex SFA 39 itself and Janine's Secret Art PRE 112.

Rugged Helmet CRE 152 sabotages the opponent. Its effect states "whenever the opponent deals damage to our active Pokémon and it has this tool attached, even if they knock it out, they'll have to remove one energy attached to their active Pokémon and put it back in their hand".

This will delay them considerably.

►Tool Jammer BST 136 disables enemy tools, including the ones that let them retreat their Pokémon, like Float Stone BKT 137 and Air Balloon SSH 156.

This goes great with Garbodor VMAX EVS 101's attack, which prevents the opponent from retreating their Pokémon. They'll have even less options with both of them in play, and will have to use cards like Switch MEG 130, Escape Rope PRC 127, Prime Catcher PRE 119, or Guzma BUS 115 to progress their game plan.

►Forest Seal Stone SIT 156 is very useful with Pokémon V, as its VStar ability lets us use Garbodor VMAX EVS 101 and Crobat V PR-SW SWSH110 to filter a card from our deck.

ACE SPEC

Here are a few cards that you can also use in this list.

Punk Helmet lets us "counterattack" whenever the opponent deals damage to any of our Darkness Pokémon that have this tool attached. Even if they manage to knock it out, they'll take 4 damage counters.

This card came out in Mega Evolution: Phantasmal Flames (ME2).

This stadium lets us return a tool attached to one of our Pokémon to our hand, so it's very versatile. We can use it to move Garbodor VMAX EVS 101's tools around and adapt our strategy as we play.

Galar Mine RCL 160 disrupts the opponent, as it forces them to spend 2 more energies to retreat their active Pokémon. It is a perfect way to delay their setup if we can't get Garbodor VMAX EVS 101 to prevent them from retreating their Pokémon.

Virbank City Gym PLS 126 puts 2 more damage counters on poisoned Pokémon in between turns, so it's a great way to deal more damage with Garbodor VMAX EVS 101.

Pros

This is a control strategy, as it sabotages the opponent by preventing them from retreating their Pokémon and forcing them to dettach the energies on their Pokémon.

Weavile-GX is a great recursive Pokémon and will be your main support energy engine.

Radiant Hisuian Sneasler LOR 123 replaced Toxicroak SSH 124. Older versions used a 2-2 line, filling up 4 slots which we can now use for more versatile cards, as we've done with today's list.

Pecharunt ex SFA 39 lets us move Garbodor VMAX EVS 101 around and also enables the Binding Mochi PRE 95 poison combo.

Cons

Decks that use Path to the Peak CRE 148 disable all the main strategies in this list.

Banette ex sv1 88 and Gengar & Mimikyu-GX TEU 53 are an issue, even though they're weak against Darkness Pokémon. The problem is the Poltergeist attack, which deals more damage according to how many trainers the opponent has. As this list plays lots of trainers, this could turn quite ugly.

One Hit K.O. lists, like Mega Absol ex MEG 86 and Yveltal SHF 46 are quite difficult to play around.

Mewtwo & Mew-GX UNM 71 and Glaceon-EX FCO 20, which prevent evolution Pokémon from dealing damage, are also a big problem.

Finally, sniper decks that deal a lot of damage, like Greninja VUnion, are quite problematic.

This deck is a new interpretation of Poison Box, now more focused on "control". If you enjoy that type of strategy and want to have fun in Expanded, I highly recommend this list.

Its biggest issue is still that Garbodor VMAX EVS 101 doesn't deal a lot of damage, so it'll still struggle to knock out enemy Pokémon. To make up for it, you can explore weaknesses with Supereffective Glasses ASR 152, which triples its base damage of 120 to 360.

Still, we can only play a limited number of recursive Pokémon that make poisoned Pokémon take more damage in this list. To play more of them, we'd have to fill more slots with multiple Toxicroak SSH 124. They'd put 4 extra damage counters on poisoned enemy Pokémon in between turns if we play them on our bench. However, that way we'd lose our other important pieces.

I hope The Pokémon Company releases a support Pokémon that makes poisoned enemy Pokémon take more damage directly through abilities. Something similar to the Fire archetype, which has consistently gotten support cards for "burn", like Infernape UPR 23, Volcarona DEX 22, and Magmortar JTG 21.

What do you think? Tell us your thoughts in our comment section below.

Thank you for reading, and see you next time!