[City League Hiroshima: Top 8] Alolan Ninetales GX Gardevoir GX Deck List [Yoshida Commentary]

Find the original Japanese-language article here.

Today we will be discussing the deck that made top 8 at the City League held on the 6^th of January at the Card Box Fukuyama store. This Alolan Ninetales Gardevoir deck will be explained by Yoshida (@overyozo), who piloted it to a top 8 finish.

Yoshida explains this deck in detail and discusses its position in the Tag Team meta, so Fairy lovers and haters alike should check out the article.

This format is an Energy heavy environment so this is definitely a deck to watch out for!

Introduction

My name is Yoshida. I played in the Hiroshima City League.

I started playing Pokemon around when the GX Starter decks came out. [Note: These were released in July 2018.]

This was my first time playing in an official, relatively large tournament so I imagine that there are some parts of my article which reflect my immaturity when it comes to the game’s strategies. However, I do hope you can read my article until the end.

Deck Introduction

The reason why I chose to play this deck is that with the release of Tag Bolt, there are lots of high HP, high Energy requirement Pokemon such as Pikachu & Zekrom GX and Magikarp & Wailord GX. Gardevoir GX can take advantage of these Energies requirements.

I also like Gardevoir as a Pokemon in general, and I did not really feel like playing any other deck.

However, with that said, I still think the deck is quite well-positioned in the current meta. I thought the meta would be comprised of decks such as Pikachu & Zekrom, Ultra Necrozma, Rayquaza and Lycanroc Zoroark. Gardevoir GX hits for weakness against Ultra Necrozma GX and Rayquaza GX, and, coming back to my previous reasoning, I thought the deck would be strong with the release of Tag Bolt.

I actually did not face any Ultra Necrozma decks in the tournament but there were definitely quite a few running around. I did not see many Rayquaza decks – this meant that Pikachu & Zekrom probably appeared in higher numbers than I had suspected previously.

Deck Concept

The concept of the deck is very simple. You want to set up two lots of Gardevoir GX and Alolan Ninetales GX. You can use Alolan Ninetales GX, spread 30 damage to an opposing Tapu Lele GX or Zeraora GX and then finish them off with Xerneas Prism.

There are not many interesting cards in this deck, but I do think Mount Lanakila is an unusual inclusion. Although there are times where it does stick, it is useless against decks which include Zeraora GX, so it is a card to reconsider.

Cards I Cut

Looker & Looker Whistle

While I had these included at one point, it was eventually replaced by Erika's Hospitality. I think it is possible to include it in other decks, however.

Lugia GX

I originally had this in because of its Energy cost of 4 Colourless Energy. Its GX move, Lost Purge, is also very good against Tag Team Pokemon with lots of Energy attached. However, I thought there would be lots of Pikachu & Zekrom and so I decided not to include it because of its Lightning weakness.

Zoroark GX/Swampert

There are many Gardevoir decks which run one of the above cards. However, I wanted to focus on gaining momentum in the early game and making the deck more streamlined, so I did not run either of these.

Lady/Oricorio

While these cards are good for searching out Energy, it affects the consistency of the deck in the early game, so I decided not to include these cards.

Onix/Larvitar

I can say this in retrospect, but I think it may have been good to include an Onix or Larvitar due to the high amounts of Lightning in the field.

Playing the Deck

While it depends on the type of deck your opponent is playing, I generally think that what you want to achieve is a Professor Elm's Lecture and get out two Ralts and Vulpix each on your first turn.

There are also cases, depending on what your opponent is playing, where you may only get one of Ralts or Vulpix.

As you have Vulpix’s Beacon, you should generally be safe from deaddrawing. However, you are especially vulnerable to disruption cards like Judge.

Your ideal board state is to have set up two Alolan Ninetales GX and Gardevoir GX each. If you have three Energies attached to a Gardevoir GX that is very strong as well.

The Meta of the Season 2 City League

While I think I read the meta correctly overall, I didn’t expect there to be such little Rayquaza.

The decks I lost to this time were a Pikachu & Zekrom in the qualifying rounds and then another Pikachu & Zekrom in top 8. Previously, I thought that the Pikachu & Zekrom matchup was quite even, but I realised that they have far more speed than Gardevoir does.

Good matchups include Ultra Necrozma and Rayquaza, and Ultra Beast decks such as Buzzwole also struggle as they can have a hard time dealing with Alolan Ninetales GX.

Bad matchups are Metal decks in general, however there aren’t really any players playing Metal decks at the moment.  I didn’t prepare any techs or strategies for this matchup. I feel if you did take some measures against the Metal type decks you could increase your win rate against them.

What I really felt when I was using the deck, was that it was strong against archetypes other than Pikachu & Zekrom. When I heard there was lots of Pikachu & Zekrom in the field I could not help but feel that I had no hope of winning.

Conclusion

For this City League, Pikachu & Zekrom dominated. I predicted this, but there were some other difficult things that occurred. While I made mistakes in the tournament, I would like to devote myself to practicing the TCG more. If we meet at a Gym Battle, please go easy on me.

This was Yoshida’s first time participating at a City League-scale tournament, so he did very well. Even at the City League Aichi, playing a GX starter deck, he did quite well. He is a player who I think we can expect more great results from in the future, so I’ll be keeping an eye on him.


Find the original Japanese-language article here.