Piecing Golisopod-GX and Zoroark-GX Together — Puzzle of Time Madness
Hey PokeBeach, I’m back from a lovely weekend in the United Kingdom for Internationals. I took home a total of 116 Championship Points from participating in both the main event and the League Cup side event. I couldn’t be more pleased with my results. As it stands right now, I’m sitting pretty in the top 16 of the North American leaderboards, which will hopefully land me a free trip to the second International Championship of the season in Oceania.
While I played Gardevoir-GX for the main event, I loved Tord Reklev’s Golisopod-GX / Zoroark-GX deck from the tournament. I liked it so much in fact that I tried it in the League Cup event on Saturday. I played a list that someone compiled through watching the stream card-for-card, and while it was sub-optimal, I went 5-0-4 (unofficially top eight and 6-0-3). I played my last round to a win, but offered my opponent a tie instead. This tie was due to circumstance and not the lack of interest in playing in top eight. If I were to have made it, I would have been dropped and earned no Championship Points of any kind since I wouldn’t have been present to sign the match slip. This was a little frustrating, but I had come to terms with that before the event even started.
While a League Cup might not normally be a great indicator of a deck’s strength, this was no ordinary Cup. With over 300 players, it was a mess of an event that resembled a smaller Regional Championship. My record was spotless and I was enamored with the deck I used mainly because of its sheer consistency. This deck is awesome, and was likely the best deck choice I’ve seen in a while; here’s why…
Humble Beginnings
Golisopod-GX is a strong card on its own, and has seen success alone as well as with partners. Zoroark-GX is the ultimate pairing Golisopod-GX has been looking for. Zoroark-GX provides it with a solid attacking companion and some amazing draw power to complement it. I was enthralled with this deck from the beginning and am excited to be writing about it. Here’s how my League Cup rounds went in London…
11/18/2017 | London, United Kingdom
17th Place (5-0-4)
Zoroark-GX / Golisopod-GX | Standard Format
- Round 1 versus Alolan Ninetales / Alolan Ninetales-GX / Decidueye-GX / Tapu Koko — 1-1 (0-0-1)
- Round 2 versus Greninja BREAK / Octillery / Starmie — 2-0 (1-0-1)
- Round 3 versus Zoroark-GX / Golisopod-GX — 1-1 (1-0-2)
- Round 4 versus M Scizor-EX / Registeel / Kartana-GX — 2-0 (2-0-2)
- Round 5 versus Zoroark-GX / Golisopod-GX — 2-0 (3-0-2)
- Round 6 versus Xerneas BREAK — 2-0 (4-0-2)
- Round 7 versus Lycanroc-GX / Zoroark / Zoroark-GX — 2-0 (5-0-2)
- Round 8 versus Buzzwole-GX / Lycanroc-GX / Zoroark / Zoroark-GX — 1-1 (5-0-3)
- Round 9 versus Gardevoir-GX / Sylveon-GX — Intentional Draw (Unofficial Win: 2-1) (5-0-4)
Before I go any further, here is the list that I first used:
The list I used for the London League Cup was pretty bad in my opinion. Without Zoroark or Float Stone, finding ways to increase Golisopod-GX’s First Impression damage output was rather hard. While the concept of the deck still remains the same — spam Acerola and recover them with Puzzle of Time — there are a few changes that I feel are necessary to improve the smoothness of how this deck runs.
Rejuvenation
Three Zoroark-GX
The mighty Trade Ability! Conserving your resources is the biggest part of playing this deck well. You want to discard the useless cards (leftover Pokemon pieces, Brigette , Field Blower , you get the idea), and get yourself more cards to set up double Puzzle of Time plays to recover even more of your resources. While playing four copies can be beneficial, it is without a doubt an unnecessary luxury. At most, while playing the deck, I found myself wanting two, maybe three, Zoroark-GX in play. Using Trade as many times as possible is strong without any doubt, but you need to have Bench space for other important cards in most matchups. Riotous Beating is also extremely powerful, and one of your main ways to deal with lower HP Pokemon that Golisopod-GX isn’t as good against.
One Zoroark
I sure do wish that I had this card in that League Cup; it’s a must in this deck going forward. Zoroark not only provides mobility for your Golisopod-GX, but it can fill in as a strong attacker with Mind Jack when you need it. Most importantly, it gives you a formidable attacker against otherwise impenetrable foes like Alolan Ninetales and Hoopa.
Four Zorua
This deck’s incredible engine is built around Zoroark-GX. To get it out, having a maxed out base of four Zorua is a great place to start since it will give you a higher chance of not only starting with it, but reduce your odds of being hurt by having them in your Prizes. The Shining Legends Zorua gives you a chance to potentially use one of its attacks for damage, which I think is more meaningful than using something like the Moonless Madness one that would Confuse your opponent’s Active Pokemon. Play this one instead of any of the other ones available to you.
This concludes the public portion of this article.
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