CurseGar (TCG)

CurseGar is a competitive in the Pokémon Trading Card Game. Although it saw the most play during the 2009-2010 season, after the release of the expansion, it is still considered a somewhat viable deck. After the of , and with it , at the end of the 2009-2010 season, CurseGar saw a massive drop in usage because its main drawpower was no longer legal. Modern variants of the deck use an based around and a variety of s in place of Claydol. The deck's name reflects the Platinum: Arceus 's , Curse, to distinguish it from based around the .
==Strategy==
The deck's ideal start is , with at least one and on the bench. While slowing the opponent's setup through Spiritomb's Keystone Seal Poké-Body, which prevents s from being played, the player uses Spiritomb's Darkness Grace attack to evolve Baltoy into and/or Gastly into and, later, . Generally, the CurseGar player attempts to evolve as much as possible before Spiritomb is knocked out. Claydol, in combination with the deck's line of Supporter cards, is often able to get out multiple Gengar early in the game, even if Spiritomb is knocked out on the first or second turn.
Once Gengar is out on the field and has attached to it, it can begin attacking with Shadow Skip. While Shadow Skip hits for an underwhelming 60 damage, it gives the CurseGar player the option to switch Gengar with one of their benched Pokémon. After using Shadow Skip, the ideal choice to swap out with Gengar is another benched Spiritomb. This prevents the opponent from playing Trainer cards during their turn, while at the same time moving Gengar to the safety of the bench so it is not damaged. To retreat Spiritomb on the CurseGar player's turn, he or she will use or . Essentially, CurseGar keeps up a cycle of doing 60 damage per turn while completely preventing the opponent from both playing Trainer cards and damaging Gengar.
==Key Cards==
* - This Gengar is the main attacker in the deck. As previously mentioned, it does 60 damage, plus 10 to one of the opponent's benched Pokémon, for . Shadow Skip's effect of moving Gengar to the bench protects it from any deck focusing on damaging the Active Pokémon, while allowing CurseGar to keep the Trainer lock running by bringing Spiritomb active during the opponent's turn.
* - Claydol is the deck's primary draw support. With its Cosmic Power Poké-Power, which allows the player to put up to two cards from their hand onto the bottom of their deck to draw until they have six cards in their hand, permits continuous hand refreshment. Additionally, it allows CurseGar to run four to drop the opponent to four cards, but gives the CurseGar player an out should they draw four useless cards.
* - Spiritomb, in addition to being the deck's ideal start, is used to absorb damage in place of Gengar while keeping a Trainer lock on the opponent throughout the game.
* - Uxie, although not considered a critical part of the deck's success, can be played from the hand to draw cards when Claydol is not available.
* - Moonlight Stadium is used to allow Spiritomb to retreat for free the turn after it was brought active following Shadow Skip. serves a similar purpose.
* - Judge provides CurseGar with a disruptive effect. It forces both players to shuffle their hands into their decks and draw new hands of only four cards. While Claydol provides a way for the CurseGar player to recover from a bad Judge, this effect can be crippling for decks that either do not run Claydol or have not yet gotten it out.
==Typical decklist==
==Possible Tech Cards==
The following cards are often used in CurseGar in place of certain cards included in the above list.
* - In builds less concerned with the 'attack-and-switch' aspect of CurseGar, Gengar LV.X can be used to spread damage with Compound Pain after Shadow Skiping damage onto several of the opponent's benched Pokémon. It is a good combination with the Platinum: Arceus and is a common inclusion.
* - Mewtwo LV.X provides a simple way to beat decks based around , common in CurseGar's era, that did not include . Mewtwo LV.X fits easily into CurseGar because it utilizes -type s, which are already included in the deck.
* - Although CurseGar runs multiple copies of most cards critical to its strategy, players concerned with having an important card prized may choose to run one Azelf.
* - Crobat G simply provides a way for CurseGar to take unexpected knockouts, should an attack be 10 damage short. Its Flash Bite Poké-Power does 10 damage to one of the opponent's Pokémon. Crobat G is easily searchable through a variety of effects, and generally does not harm the deck's consistency.
:* - Poké Turn is used exclusively in combination with Crobat G. After Crobat G is dropped from the hand, Poké Turn can scoop it up to either use again or free up a needed bench space.
Category:Deck archetypes