Pokémon TCG: Top 10 Best Gyarados of All Time

In this article, we'll show you the top 10 most interesting and strong Gyarados in Pokémon TCG - considering cards from the Wizards of the Coast era until today. This Pokémon is one of the most popular Pokémon among players, and has a huge fan base.

Let's go!

10 - Gyarados (Wizards of the Coast Era: Base Set)

Gyarados BS 6 was a crucial piece in the "Water Box" deck at the Wizards of the Coast era because, thanks to Blastoise BS 2 and its ability, "Rain Dance", it was incredibly easy to move Water energy cards to your attacking Pokémon.

Additionally, Gyarados BS 6's second attack was quite interesting, considering it could Paralyze the opponent's active Pokémon, and, like so, knock it out with its first attack, that deals 50 damage. Keep in mind that, in this format, Pokémon had less HP, and 40 and 50 points of damage wreaked a lot of havoc at the time.

Years later, this Pokémon was reprinted in the X/Y: Evolutions set, in which its attacks changed. Its Paralysis effect was moved to its first attack, and its second attack needed a coin toss to work.

9 - Dark Gyarados (Wizards of the Coast Era: Team Rocket)

This Pokémon's attack follows the same principles as its "partner" from the Base Set, also makes its opponent Paralyzed if you toss a coin.

However, it stands out because of its ability, which is a sort of reactive counter-attack; when Dark Gyarados TR 8 is knocked out by your opponent, you'll toss a coin. If it's "heads", you'll deal 20 damage for each Water energy card attached to it.

8 - Giovanni's Gyarados (Wizards of the Coast Era: Gym Challenge)

Still in the WOTC era, this Pokémon has two attacks that have a common goal: spread as much damage as possible on to your opponent's Pokémon.

Its first attack, if you hit both coins, will deal 20 damage to all Pokémon in play (including ours), but its second attack is excellent because, besides dealing damage, if by any chance the opponent's active Pokémon isn't knocked out, your opponent will be forced to swap their active Pokémon (after it is dealt damage) by one Pokémon in their bench.

7 - Gyarados (Ruby/Sapphire: Deoxys)

This card has three attacks, each with their own goal.

The first deals 10 damage to all enemy Pokémon in play; the second attack deals damage based on how many damage counters your benched Magikarp have (considering three copies of Magikarp in play, we'll deal 100 damage for just two colorless energy cards); and, finally, its last attack: if your opponent already has two damage counters, Gyarados will also deal 100 damage.

6 - Gyarados-GX (Sun/Moon: Crimson Invasion)

This Gyarados occupies this spot because of two reasons, considering Expanded:

1) Its second attack, Draconic Disaster, is excellent to remove unwanted stadiums from play, such as Shrine of Punishment CES 143, and like so deal its maximum damage, which is 200.

2) Its GX attack, Dread Storm, discards one energy card attached to each of your opponent's Pokémon.

Even though it seems hard to set up because of its energy cost, we can easily solve this with Baxcalibur PR-SV 19.

5 -Gyarados V & Gyarados VMax (Sword/Shield: Evolving Skies)

In this case, I like to analyze both its basic form and its "Dynamax" (VMax) form as units because they complement each other. Considering Expanded:

Starting with Gyarados V EVS 28: its attack, Get Angry, deals 20 damage for each damage counter this Pokémon has.

As for Gyarados VMAX EVS 29, with its 330 HP, and Memory Capsule VIV 155 (which allows us to use attacks from its previous evolutions or base form); by using Get Angry, if Gyarados VMAX EVS 29 has only 10 health, you can deal up to 640 damage!

Additionally, both its attacks are incredible.

4 - Gyarados ex (Scarlet/Violet: Base Set)

This Gyarados is in our list because of its second attack, Tyrannical Tail, which deals an extra 180 of damage added to its base damage of the same amount if any of your opponent's Pokémon has any damage counters. This is excellent for decks that use "sniper" or "spread" attacks, and Pokémon like Greninja VUnion.

3 - Gyarados (Diamond/Pearl: Mysterious Treasures)

Reaching our third place, we returned to Diamond & Pearl. It stands out because of its ability, Dragon DNA, which allows us to use attacks from its base form, Magikarp, and this attack also gets an extra 30 damage!

Unfortunately, this Gyarados isn't available in Expanded. Maybe in the future, The Pokémon Company can reprint it, and recycle this ability again.

2 - Gyarados (Diamond/Pearl: Stormfront)

And, in its well-deserved second place, we have Gyarados SF 19, which has already made history in a deck called Happy Luck, a deck used by Mychael Bryan, a finalist from the senior category in 2010.

This Pokémon is relevant because of its first attack, Tail Revenge, which deals damage according to each Magikarp in your discard pile, but, there's something else: this attack costs zero energy cards!

And, considering the goal of the deck in our first paragraph, Gyarados SF 19 gains a bit more traction because of Broken Time-Space PL 104, which "accelerates" your turn and allows you to evolve Magikarp right on the first turn. So, Gyarados SF 19 will move first and will be able to knock out as many enemy Pokémon as it can on the first few turns.

1 - Gyarados (Sun/Moon: Team Up)

This is one of the best Pokémon so far overall, and comes from Sun/Moon.

It is quite simple: everything you need to do is use its first attack, Distilled Blast, which, for one Water energy card, discards the top seven cards in your deck. If these cards are energy cards, you'll deal 30 base damage plus 30 damage for each energy card you discard, and can deal, in the best-case scenario, 240 damage!

Of course, it has a downside, considering cards that aren't energy cards will still be discarded, but, so we can keep these resources, we can always filter our deck.

Additionally, as it is a "single prize" card, we have a good cost/benefit balance to deal with ultra rare "Fire Box" decks, such as Pokémon-EX, GX, TAG TEAM, V, VMax, VStar, and ex, which is very rewarding.

Gyarados (Sun/Moon: Dragon Majesty)

This Gyarados entered our list because of its ability, Commotion: if Gyarados is your active Pokémon, and it is hit with enemy attacks, even if it is knocked out, for each attack it was dealt, the enemy Pokémon will get 2 damage counters as retaliation.

This helps its attack, Wild Tail, complement future attacks bit by bit.

What did you think of this list? What would your top 10 best Gyarados list look like? Tell us your thoughts in the comment section.

Thank you for reading! See you next time.