Deck Tech Standard: Garchomp ex Terastal & Lucario

With the arrival of the Scarlet & Violet: Paradox Rift collection, we have more varieties of Pokémon with Terastal mechanics.

The strategy I'll discuss today involves Garchomp ex sv4 38, known for its efficiency in dealing excellent damage for a single energy, along with energy acceleration among its Benched Pokémon. It also features a second attack with the "sniper" strategy.

Decklist

Garchomp ex Terastal: The Main Attacker and its Proposal

Here's the star of the deck, boasting three advantages every player would want:

- A Pokémon that can deal significant damage with few energies.

- Excellent secondary effects, such as dynamic energization.

- Zero retreat cost.

Garchomp ex manages to fulfill all these criteria. Its first attack, Hydro Lander, is what drives this deck to deal damage on the field, energizing its other Garchomp ex sv4 38 and Lucario PR-SW SWSH186, another crucial deck attacker, being a "single prize" Pokémon.

Its second attack, Sonic Dive, aims to be a finishing move in cases where the opponent has many damaged Pokémon in play that they can't heal or to initiate some knockouts on support Pokémon on the opponent's Bench, such as Radiant Greninja ASR 46 (even if it has 10 HP left, it helps).

Its disadvantage is its Terastal typing, especially as the format is growing with the electric type, with the widespread use of Iron Hands ex sv4 70.

Lucario: Secondary Attacker and Aggressive "Single Prize" Option

To protect your Garchomp ex sv4 38 in the prize race, Lucario PR-SW SWSH186 is a mandatory option. Its ability allows you to attach a physical energy from your deck to it, but with the cost of placing two damage counters on the Pokémon.

Its attack is 10 + 60 for each physical energy attached to it. Considering two energies (one from the turn and one using the ability), you can deal 130 damage, enough to defeat many "single prize" Pokémon of the opponent, such as Radiant Greninja ASR 46 and Radiant Alakazam SIT 59.

As for attackers, there's the presence of Snorlax LOR 143 for control decks that can be knocked down, as well as Snorlax LOR 143 with the goal of attack, present in Lugia VStar decks.

Against ultra-rare colorless Pokémon targets like Slaking V PGO 58, with 130 damage and the weakness application, you can reach 260 damage, knocking them out.

Arceus VSTAR PR-SW SWSH307 suffers at the hands of Lucario PR-SW SWSH186 if it has three energies, as it deals 190 gross damage that will be doubled with the weakness application, causing 380 damage, being very effective against these types of decks. It can be energized in two ways:

1) Using the first attack of Garchomp ex sv4 38, energizing the three energies it needs for this.

2) If your game has another Pokémon with a spare physical energy, in addition to the energy you can pull from the deck and the one from the turn's hand, you can use Energy Switch sv1 173 as part of transferring an energy already in play to another Pokémon to fulfill the cost. Alternatively, you can use Gutsy Pickaxe ASR 145 if Lucario is on the Bench.

Recursive Pokémon

Draw Pokémon

- Bidoof CRZ 111 has the ability Carefree Countenance, preventing it from taking damage on the Bench from attacks, useful for evolving it into Bibarel.

- Bibarel BRS 121 has Industrious Incisors, allowing you to draw until you have five cards in your hand each turn.

- Radiant Greninja ASR 46 comes with its ability Concealed Cards, allowing you to discard an energy from your hand each turn and draw two cards.

In addition to ensuring "draw power" in your game, discarding energies helps in deck filtering so that having these energies in the discard pile helps with the combo of Garchomp ex sv4 38 and its first attack.

Hand Renewal and Energy Acceleration Pokémon

Squawkabilly is included in the deck for two conditions:

1) If it doesn't come in the first turn, the attack of Squawkabilly ex sv2 169 can be useful to accelerate the energization of your Pokémon on the Bench, preparing your Riolu sv1 215 to use the ability of Lucario PR-SW SWSH186 sparingly to avoid the backlash of damage counters and accumulate the maximum energy possible to deal more damage with a "single prize" Pokémon in the long run.

2) If you start with it in your hand (assuming you have another Pokémon that needs to be the active one to play Squawkabily on the Bench), in the first turn, if you have Squawkabilly ex sv2 169 along with more energy cards in your hand, you can activate its ability, not only filtering the deck but also renewing your hand with new cards and filtering energies to the discard pile, speeding up the combo of the first attack of Garchomp ex sv4 38 in the long run.

The examples below illustrate these scenarios more efficiently:

- You will place Bidoof CRZ GG29 as the active Pokémon, then play Nest Ball sv1 181 to further filter the deck, searching for Riolu sv1 215 or Gible sv4 94 for your Bench.

- After that, you will play Squawkabilly ex sv2 169 on your Bench to activate its ability and discard your current hand with the two fighting energies you have, streamlining the future combo of Garchomp ex sv4 38.

With the second example below:

In this case, you put Gible sv4 94 as the active Pokémon, place Radiant Greninja ASR 46 on the Bench, and then use Ultra Ball sv1 196 to search for Squawkabilly ex sv2 169 (hoping it's in the deck and not in the prize cards), costing two fighting energies, and use its ability to discard your hand and draw six new cards, expediting four energies to the discard pile.

Bench Protection Pokémon Against Opponent's Sniper Pokémon

Starting Hands

In this simulation, we start very well: we have room to place Gible sv4 94 and Manaphy CRZ GG06 on the Bench and use the stadium Artazon sv2 171 to our advantage, searching for more "baby" Pokémon (without "Rule Box") to help in the zoning of your Bench for better game development. The smart move would be to search for Bidoof CRZ GG29.

In this second simulation, the actions are:

1) Promote Gible sv4 94 as the active Pokémon and Manaphy CRZ GG06 on the Bench.

2) Play Ultra Ball sv1 196 to search for Squawkabilly ex sv2 169 (if possible, and if it's in the deck instead of in the prize cards), and then check your deck to see what is available; then play Squawkabilly ex sv2 169 to use its ability, discard your current hand, and refresh it with six new cards.

3) If the above option with Ultra Ball sv1 196 doesn't have Squawkabilly ex sv2 169, play more defensively and calmly by choosing Bidoof CRZ GG29. Then, play the card Iono sv2 185 to renew your hand and draw new cards, as well as disrupt the opponent's hand at the same time.

Trainer Cards

Supporter with Healing Function

It's the crucial Supporter card of the deck due to the following process:

The effect of Cheryl BST 123 is to heal all damage from your evolved Pokémon at the cost of discarding all energies attached to those Pokémon, which might seem like a "high" cost at first glance, but it's not.

This is because Garchomp ex sv4 38 can attack with one energy, which is very practical to set up, and recover the advantage. It also has zero retreat cost, and this can even stall the opponent, forcing them to use a Boss's Orders to cause a precise knockout of 320 damage or more to ensure the prize race is in their favor. In the current format, there are few Pokémon that can deal fast and precise damage above 300 - and only resorting to Electric-type Pokémon to apply weakness to reach those values.

Supporter with the Function of Searching for Water-type Pokémon and Items

It's the second most important Supporter card in the deck because it aids in the search filter of Garchomp ex sv4 38 by precisely gaining the water type with its Terastal form and can also search for a Rare Candy PGO 69 to accelerate the evolution of Gible sv4 94 and optimize your game quickly for Garchomp ex sv4 38 to use its first attack as soon as possible.

Supporter with the Function of Opponent's Pokémon "Catcher"

Supporter to Sabotage the Opponent's Hand

Pokémon Search Items

Item for Energizing your Pokémon and "Draw Power"

Item for Recycling Pokémon and Energies

Item for Recycling Energies

Item for Recycling Supporters

Item for "Catcher" Function Against the Opponent

Tool

Going a bit against the convenience of attacking with few energies, this card is more specific in use to avoid using the second attack of Garchomp ex sv4 38, Sonic Dive, where you need to discard two energies from the Pokémon to deal 120 damage.

This is where the role of this card comes in, allowing you to deal 100 damage to an opponent's Pokémon that is already "injured," that is, with any damage counters, saving the energy cards for some other more opportune moment to use Sonic Dive.

Stadium

As the deck has many "baby" Pokémon, the choice of Artazon is more than perfect to help filter these Pokémon and place them on the Bench as quickly as possible, being a kind of "Nest Ball" built-in while the stadium is in play.

Advantages

- Against a deck that has Arceus VSTAR CRZ GG70 and Slaking V PGO 58.

- Against a deck with Tsareena ex sv4 46 due to having Cheryl BST 123 in your deck, breaking the "control stall" strategy it employs.

- Against a deck with Scizor sv3 205.

- Against a Lost Box deck focused on "single prize" Pokémon.

Disadvantages

- Deck of Roaring Moon ex sv4 229 due to its "instant K.O." effect.

- Electric archetype deck like Iron Hands ex sv4 70 and Miraidon ex PR-SV 28.

- Deck of Iron Valiant ex sv4 89 if it manages to execute its combo with the ability to place damage counters, and if our game starts very poorly.

It's a deck that few have paid attention to but has many advantages that Garchomp ex sv4 38 offers, and many would dream that every Pokémon were as useful as it: having an attack that energizes its own Pokémon, which is an effect (unlike Charizard ex sv3 125); having the convenience of using only one energy to deal excellent damage and still having zero retreat cost, avoiding the need to include cards like Switch in the deck.

Being a cheap Pokémon ex, it's practical to assemble it without spending much money - and the player's wallet appreciates it.

Until next time