Gardevoir/Gallade (TCG)

GG redirects here. This can also refer to a casual abbreviation for "good game" considered polite after an online battle on a simulator such as Pokémon Showdown.
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Gardevoir/Gallade, with more -centric variations known as PLOX (short for Power Lock or Psychic Lock), is considered by many to be the most dominant of its era. After the release of the expansion, players built on the obvious synergy between Gardevoir and to create early variants of the deck, which performed well in Play! Pokémon tournaments. Dominating the competitive play scene, Gardevoir/Gallade went on to win the , played by two-time World Champion Jason Klaczynski. His variant, packaged as a world championships deck, is known officially as . Later versions of the deck used as a means of energy acceleration, although they never performed as well as early versions of Gardevoir/Gallade.
==Strategy==
Gardevoir/Gallade focused on preventing the opponent from using s through the use of 's Psychic Lock attack and easily knocking out the opponents' heavy attackers with 's Psychic Cut. Through the use of Telepass and Cosmic Power, Gardevoir and 's respective Poké-Powers, in combination with a variety of searching and drawing s such as and , Gardevoir/Gallade easily set up.
The deck's remarkable consistency left room for a number of situational cards. This build uses as a tech against the many archetypes of the time that filled the Bench with important Pokémon. was used as a tertiary attacker to clean up heavily damaged Pokémon on the opponent's Bench. Cards such as and were helpful against certain matchups, such as and , respectively.
==Key Cards==
* - Gardevoir was a secondary attacker in more offensive builds and the main attacker in PLOX. Its Telepass Poké-Power was useful in setting up, allowing the Gardevoir/Gallade player to utilize the effect of an opponent's in their discard pile. Gardevoir's attack, Psychic Lock, did 60 damage for and prevented the opponent from using Poké-Powers during their next turn. In an era where many decks relied on Poké-Powers such as 's Cosmic Power to set up, this was a powerful disruption effect that could shut the opponent down early in the game.
* - Gallade had the ability to knock out almost any Pokémon in the game in one shot for only with Psychic Cut. It required the player to flip over any amount of their prize cards, and did 60 damage plus 20 more damage for each prize card flipped. This allowed Gallade to hit for up to 180 damage once, 100 damage three times, 80 damage six times, and so on. Against decks that built up one main attacker and attempted to keep it alive, Gallade's ability to OHKO virtually anything was a tremendous threat. In its day, Psychic Cut was an incredible attack. Gallade also possessed Sonic Blade which, for , put damage counters on the Defending Pokémon until it was 50 HP away from being knocked out. It also forced the opponent to switch it with one of their Benched Pokémon. Sonic Blade could set up even the bulkiest of Defending Pokémon for a KO the next turn with Psychic Cut or 's Bring Down.
* - While Gardevoir's Telepass could utilize searching Supporter cards in the opponent's discard pile, Claydol provided Gardevoir/Gallade's main drawpower. Claydol's Cosmic Power simply sped up the deck's ability to get an attacker up and running.
* - Since Gardevoir and Gallade were both Stage 2 evolved Pokémon, Rare Candy's ability to skip the stage of evolution was an important asset to Gardevoir/Gallade's quick setup.
* - Three Windstorm were critical to the deck to counter , which nullified both Telepass and Cosmic Power, and, most importantly, . Crystal Beach was considered by many to be the most powerful card against Gardevoir/Gallade. It made all Special Energies that provided two or more units of Energy now provide only . Since Gardevoir/Gallade essentially relied on and to satisfy the energy costs of its attackers, Crystal Beach ripped apart its strategy. Windstorm's ability to discard Crystal Beach was absolutely vital.
* - Double Rainbow Energy was the card most often used to power Gardevoir and Gallade's respective attacks. Although it slightly decreased the amount of damage the Pokémon could do, the ability to essentially have two energy attachments in a single turn allowed the deck to begin attacking significantly faster and recover from knocked out attackers quickly.
* - Scramble Energy served essentially as a more powerful Double Rainbow Energy, but functioned only when the Gardevoir/Gallade player was behind in prizes. Scramble Energy assured that the deck was never down, allowing a Gallade's Psychic Cut to be fully powered up with only one energy attachment.
==Typical decklist==
==Possible Tech Cards==
* - Jirachi ex was generally used in variants that focused more on locking the opponent's Poké-Powers than taking prizes quickly. Jirachi ex's Shield Beam attack, which cost only when the opponent had any Stage-2 evolved Pokémon or in play, did 30 damage and prevented the opponent from using any Poké-Powers during their next turn. Jirachi ex was essentially a faster but less powerful version of to be used when the latter was not available.
* Jolteon - Although it was not an especially common tech card, Jason Klaczynski used Jolteon in Gardevoir/Gallade to help the deck knock out Pokémon with an odd-number of HP in one shot. Since 's Psychic Cut attack did damage in multiples of 20, it needed to flip over three prize cards to knock out a Defending Pokémon with 120 HP, but four to knock out a Pokémon with 130 HP. Jolteon 's Yellow Ray Poké-Power allowed Gallade to knock out Pokémon with odd HP by flipping over one less prize.
* - Chatot was used as a hand refresher and free retreater. Chatot's Mimic attack allowed the Gardevoir/Gallade player to shuffle their hand into her deck and draw the same number of cards. Mimic, in combination with its free retreat, made Chatot a fantastic remedy to a poor starting hand.
* - After the rotation of and , Gardevoir/Gallade suffered from a lack of energy acceleration and faded from the public eye. However, players began to combo the deck's main attackers with Weavile, Special Darkness Energies, and a newer line of , , and . Weavile's Shadow Charge attack allowed for faster energy attachment to Gardevoir and Gallade, and its Dark Engage Poké-Power allowed attackers to do more damage when they had Special Darkness Energies attached. Weavile was not so much a tech card as the revival of Gardevoir/Gallade.
==External links==
* Jason Klaczynski's 2008 Worlds Report
* Analysis of Gardevoir decks from 2008 to 2010
Category:Deck archetypes