Discussion Brilliant Arrow, Despair Ray Combo

[Tigger3584]

Hello, I've just started playing Pokemon tcg this year and need some advice on how to improve my deck. I've been playing it at a local store which hosts Pokemon tournaments and my deck does decently well, considering I'm on a budget. When I'm playing my deck, I often end up losing to Volcanion due to its fast setup. I'm going to be using Mega Gardevoir at Regionals and any advice would be helpful.
Pokemon
4 Xerneas (STS)
2 Hoopa (AOR)
2 M. Gardevoir (PRC)
2 M. Gardevoir (STS)
Trainers
3 Shauna
2 Sycamore
2 N
2 Lysandre
2 Pokemon Fan Club
2 Brock's Grit
1 Hex Maniac
1 Skyla
3 Fairy Garden
4 Gardevoir Spirit Link
4 Ultra Ball
3 VS Seeker
3 Mega turbo
2 Proffesor's Letter
1 Evosoda
Energies
11 Fairy Energy

 

[thom ye]

I've played a similar deck. Keeping in mind that you said you are on a budget.... (ie Shaymin EX).
Max Elixir is the best "fix". they are not too expensive, and most decks need a few.
You seem to be missing Gardevoir EX from your deck.
I run only x2 Xerneas. Four is excessive and its only used to accelerate energy. Possibly try Xerneas Break to give your Xerneas another turn with more HP.
I rather have another Sycamore and VS Seeker instead of Pokemon Fan Club.
I don't think Hoopa will help (unless you are talking about Hoopa EX, which I run x1).
I use x2 Energy Switch, since this deck ran traditionally with Aromatisse.
I use x3 Fairy Garden. and include a Parallel City and Silent Lab, since this build doesn't rely that much on abilities.

 

[PMJ]

Pick a Gardevoir and stick with it. They may both be Mega Gardevoir, but they have almost no synergy with each other. One needs you to have many Benched Pokemon in order to rack up the damage and the other tries to thin your Bench as much as you can to deny KOs and achieve quick and cheap 2HKOs. It looks like your build complements the Brilliant Arrow version more, so I'd try to get another one of those. You can leave one of the Despair Ray ones in there since it drastically improves your Mewtwo matchup, but your focus should be on Brilliant Arrow.

 

[TCG_Destory]

Hello, I've just started playing Pokemon tcg this year and need some advice on how to improve my deck. I've been playing it at a local store which hosts Pokemon tournaments and my deck does decently well, considering I'm on a budget. When I'm playing my deck, I often end up losing to Volcanion due to its fast setup. I'm going to be using Mega Gardevoir at Regionals and any advice would be helpful.
Pokemon
4 Xerneas (STS)
2 Hoopa (AOR)
2 M. Gardevoir (PRC)
2 M. Gardevoir (STS)
Trainers
3 Shauna
2 Sycamore
2 N
2 Lysandre
2 Pokemon Fan Club
2 Brock's Grit
1 Hex Maniac
1 Skyla
3 Fairy Garden
4 Gardevoir Spirit Link
4 Ultra Ball
3 VS Seeker
3 Mega turbo
2 Proffesor's Letter
1 Evosoda
Energies
11 Fairy Energy

If you are going to make a hybrid variant, I would strongly recommend you include two copies of one of the Mega Gardevoir and just one of the other, to then have your strategy based around the one you run two of mainly. I know by experience that they actually can work together, but not really in a 2-2 manner. If you want to play a Brilliant Arrow hybrid, then you will include one Despair Ray card to make sure you can discard Pokémon, pressure your opponent, possibly make a comeback at the end of the game when you are low on Energies and handle the dreaded Mega Mewtwo matchup. In that kind of deck, I would run two Shaymin-EX and one Hoopa-EX, four Xerneas and three or four Gardevoir-EX as the Basics.
However, if you want to run mostly the Despair Ray version, then you can just put one copy of the Brilliant Arrow and the two Despair Ray. In that case, the strategy becomes applying early pressure (turn 2 or turn 3) with Despair Ray, after having loaded up Pokémon with Energy using Geomancy, possibly spamming Despair Ray with 110 damage two-shotting most Pokémon while healing with Fairy Drop and leaving the big Knock Outs to the Brilliant Arrow once the board contains 6-7 Energy.
In both situations you want Fairy Garden and Fairy Drop, but in the Despair Ray based one there should be less Xerneas but more Shaymin-EX and Hoopa-EX.

I actually play a hybrid variant of Mega Gardevoir myself, so I will share my decklist to give an example.

Pokémon - 14
2 Hoopa EX AOR
3 Gardevoir EX STS
1 M Gardevoir EX PCL
2 M Gardevoir EX STS
3 Xerneas XY
3 Shaymin EX ROS

Trainer - 37
3 Fairy Garden

2 Lysandre
3 N
3 Professor Sycamore

3 Escape Rope
3 Fairy Drop
4 Gardevoir Spirit Link
2 Mega Turbo
2 Super Rod
4 Trainer's Mail
4 Ultra Ball
4 VS Seeker

Energy - 9
9 Fairy Energy

Hope this helped. I am certain that hybrid Mega Gardevoir decks work if you build them correctly. It is a matter of picking a main strategy while being able to fit the other variant in.

As for modifying your list, I would switch a Brock's Grit for a Super Rod, remove the three Shauna to add one N and two Professor Sycamore, remove the two Professor's Letter to add two Fairy Drop and take out the Evosoda to add in either an Escape Rope or a fourth VS Seeker. I would also strongly recommend you get your hands on one Shaymin-EX because this deck (almost any deck in fact) needs one to do well competitively. Now, I know it is only legal for five more months but it will still have Expanded value afterwards. If you are not going to invest money on one though, I recommend maxing out on the Sycamore/N count.

 

[Fayld]

Pick a Gardevoir and stick with it. They may both be Mega Gardevoir, but they have almost no synergy with each other. One needs you to have many Benched Pokemon in order to rack up the damage and the other tries to thin your Bench as much as you can to deny KOs and achieve quick and cheap 2HKOs. It looks like your build complements the Brilliant Arrow version more, so I'd try to get another one of those. You can leave one of the Despair Ray ones in there since it drastically improves your Mewtwo matchup, but your focus should be on Brilliant Arrow.

Considering this deck list placed second at the Leipzig regional, I think maybe this comment is misplaced. The cards don't have synergy in the same way that BA Gard synergizes with Xerneas Break, but the cards each handle areas of weakness for the other mega while piggy backing off the same spirit link, the same energy, and the same base EX giving you a wider range of ways to end games. I have found my deck list to be quite good against most match ups and because it isn't as ability / item dependent as other decks, it plays in the meta.

As a reference, this is what I am using. It is pretty similar to the list @TCG_Destory with a few differences

Pokemon (14)
3 Xerneas STS
2 Hoopa EX
2 Shaymin EX
2 Gardevoir EX STS
1 Gardevoir EX PCL
2 M Gardevoir EX STS
2 M Gardevoir EX PCL

Trainers (36)
4 Professor Sycamore
2 N
2 Hex Maniac
2 Lysandre
1 Skyla
1 Pokemon Center Lady

4 VS Seeker
4 Ultra Ball
2 Escape Rope
2 Fairy Drop
2 Mega Turbo
2 Trainer's Mail
1 Super Rod

3 Fairy Garden

4 Gardevoir Spirit Link

Energy (10)
10 Fairy Energy

 

[josie0001]

I played a Mega Gardy combo in this month's tourney and had pretty decent results. The deck has a good matchup against Darkrai (with or without Dragons), which was the deck to beat when the tournament started a month ago. Oh how the times have changed. Not sure if it's still the play for me, but it's definitely a powerful deck - an OHKOing machine in a format without many OHKOs.

I played a 2/1 Brilliant Arrow to Despair Ray split but would definitely bump that up to a 3/1 split. As PMJ stated, the Despair Ray M Gardy is there to solidify the Mewtwo matchup. Too often tho I found myself drawing into the wrong M Gardy at the wrong time and only having 2 of the Brilliant Arrow was VERY painful if even one of them was prized.

I also played a 3/3 split of Mega Turbo and Max Elixir. Mega Turbo was CLUTCH. In every matchup I found myself digging and digging for Turbos to try and get OHKOs. Max Elixirs felt like a luxury and they NEVER hit after even just one Geomancy from baby Xerneas.

2 Hoopa seems pretty unnecessary, as do 4 Gardy EXs (like Joe played). You really want to start baby Xerneas as much as possible, so having extra basics not named Xerneas can be problematic.

I really like the inclusion of Skyla and 2 Ropes - I will have to test that out myself.

If you're on a budget, Oranguru could be used in place of Shaymin. Not great, but you need some kind of non-supporter card draw to survive in this game right now.

I'm seeing now this post is pretty old, so I hope you had good results at Regionals! Hopefully you're still tinkering away and have had success in this drastically different meta.