Alt. Format Fairy Tales (Gardevoir GX / Gardevoir / Alolan Ninetales GX / Xerneas Prism Star)

[Dark Espeon]

FAIRY TALES

Pokémon (18):

• 1 Xerneas Prism Star (beatdown)
• 2 Alolan Ninetales GX (searches)
• 2 Alolan Vulpix SM2 (evolution)
• 1 Ditto Prism Star (evolution)
  
• 3 Gardevoir SM7 (beatdown)
• 2 Gardevoir GX (beatdown)
• 1 Kirlia SM7b (evolution)
• 4 Ralts SM7b (evolution)
• 2 Tapu Lele GX (search)

Trainer (30):

• 2 Diantha (retrieval)
• 3 Sightseer (draw)
• 3 Guzma (control)
• 3 Cynthia (draw)
• 3 Lillie (draw)
• 1 Rescue Stretcher (retrieval)
• 3 Choice Band (beatdown)
• 3 Rare Candy (evolution)
• 1 Field Blower (control)
• 4 Ultra Ball (search)
• 4 Nest Ball (search)

Energy (12):

• 3 Double Colorless Energy
• 1 Super Boost Energy
  
• 8 Fairy Energy

STRATEGY:

Start with either Ralts or Alolan Vulpix and use the search items to bench some additional Basic Pokémon. Use Beacon to search out Alolan Ninetales GX and both Gardevoir. Evolve Alolan Vulpix into Alolan Ninetales GX to search out Rare Candy and evolve Ralts into Gardevoir and Gardevoir GX. Use Gardevoir GX to fuel the entire team and attack with Gardevoir and Xerneas Prism Star. Recycle lost attackers and resources with Diantha and Gardevoir GX.

REQUEST:

Would like to fit one Pal Pad into this deck in order to recycle Diantha but have no idea what to take out to make room for it without compromising the consistency of the deck.

 

[Chicken Nugget Master]

FAIRY TALES

Pokémon (18):

• 1 Xerneas Prism Star (beatdown)
• 2 Alolan Ninetales GX (searches)
• 2 Alolan Vulpix SM7b (evolution)
• 2 Alolan Vulpix SM2 (evolution)
• 2 Gardevoir SM7 (beatdown)
• 2 Gardevoir GX (beatdown)
• 2 Kirlia SM7b (evolution)
• 4 Ralts SM7b (evolution)
• 1 Tapu Lele GX (search)

Trainer (30):

• 2 Diantha (retrieval)
• 3 Sightseer (draw)
• 3 Guzma (control)
• 3 Cynthia (draw)
• 3 Lillie (draw)
• 1 Rescue Stretcher (retrieval)
• 3 Choice Band (beatdown)
• 3 Rare Candy (evolution)
• 1 Field Blower (control)
• 4 Ultra Ball (search)
• 4 Nest Ball (search)

Energy (12):

• 4 Double Colorless Energy
• 8 Fairy Energy

STRATEGY:

Start with either Ralts or Alolan Vulpix and use the search items to bench some additional Basic Pokémon. Use Beacon to search out Alolan Ninetales GX and both Gardevoir. Evolve Alolan Vulpix into Alolan Ninetales GX to search out Rare Candy and evolve Ralts into Gardevoir and Gardevoir GX. Use Gardevoir GX to fuel the entire team and attack with either Gardevoir or Xerneas Prism Star.

REQUEST:

Would like to fit one Pal Pad into this deck in order to recycle Diantha but have no idea what to take out to make room for it without compromising the consistency of the deck.

This deck has the potential to be incredibly strong, but I don't think you're playing to your advantages here. I have a number of suggestions, but I'll l go through them all individually just to elaborate more.


The 4-2 Alolan Vulpix Line.

You will not need a 4-2 Vulpix line, especially not a 2/2 Vulpix spilt. A 2-2 line (or perhaps 3-2 if you wish to rely on Ninetales more) should suffice, due to the fact that your opponent will not try to target Alolan Vulpix as they have bigger fish to fry, such as taking down your Ralts. Also, as you need your first attack to be Beacon, I would advise against playing the SM7b Vulpix, as getting the Gardevoir and Ninetales into your hand for a T2 evolution is critical to this deck's strategy. I would cut 2 Alolan Vulpix, one for another Tapu Lele GX (explained below) and one for a Pal Pad as per your request.


The 4-2-2/2 Gardevoir Line and Xerneas.

Let me lay this bare: If you're playing a Gardevoir GX deck, you need at least 3 Gardevoir GX, as it is your main attacker and if you play any less than 3, you may struggle to get it down and attack with it. However, 2 of the non-GX Gardevoir is also kind of necessary, as you can almost guarantee that you'll get one down each game. This will not only force your opponent to play the 7 Prize Game, but it does do the job Xerneas is meant to do for the same damage output, only with a more manageable attack cost ([Y][C][C] as opposed to [Y][Y][Y]). Although Gardevoir is a Stage 2, and Xerneas is only a Basic, Gardevoir can attack twice in a row if need be, and offers a consistency attack as well, should you ever need it. For this reason, I would advise you to drop Xerneas. It would probably be the 61st card in the list, and I would have no qualms if you wanted to put it back in, but I myself would keep it out just to aid consistency.

Moving back to the Gardevoir line scenario though, a 4-2-5 line seems a little top heavy, so I would include a Ditto Prism Star to give you a 5-2-5 line and a better chance of getting your Gardevoir down. Now that we have a chance to get more Gardevoir on the field, we could think about including a Super Boost Energy, but I'll save that thought for later. You can add the Ditto Prism Star and the third Gardevoir GX by dropping the Xerneas Prism Star and the third Choice Band, as two should be enough because Gardevoir is able to ramp up damage pretty fast when you have multiple in play. You could also include another Kirlia if you wanted as well, but I don't have any cards in mind I would cut for it.



1 Tapu Lele GX.

In order to aid consistency, which is your main focus in Stage 2 decks such as Gardevoir, I would add another copy of Tapu Lele GX so you find it easier to access your draw supporters as you do not play Zebstrika in this list.


3 Lillie.

After T1, Lillie does become quite a dead card, so I would cut two of these Lillie for two copies of Copycat as they are a very good card against the Zoroark matchup, with which Gardevoir tends to struggle a bit sometimes.


2 Diantha.

2 Diantha seems a little bit too heavy, as it is quite situational and there are other supporters that would fare you better when it comes to retaliation. As Gardevoir already has quite a few recovery options, I would consider cutting one of these for a Tate and Liza, again for the consistency. Don't worry about discarding it early game though, as I have found space to play a Pal Pad, and in most cases you should be able to get it when you need it


Super Boost Energy.

It just feels right to play Super Boost Energy in Gardevoir, and now you can get 3 Gardevoir down at once with greater ease than you could before, why wouldn't you play this great enhancing card? Cut the 8th Fairy Energy for it.


So, in summary, here are my thoughts.

-1 Xerneas Prism Star
-2 Vulpix (SM7b)
-1 Diantha
-2 Lillie
-1 Choice Band
-1 Fairy Energy

+1 Ditto Prism Star
+1 Gardevoir GX
+1 Tapu Lele GX
+1 Tate and Liza
+2 Copycat
+1 Pal Pad
+1 Super Boost Energy


I hope these suggestions helped, and that they'll be put to good use!

 

[Duo]

How consistently are you able to set up the deck without Pokemon Fan Club?

I have an incredibly hard time just running 4/4 Ultra/Nest in Stage 2 decks. I always gun for Pokemon Fan Club and usually only see 1 Nest Ball in hand at best which allows me to pull off a pseudo Brigette on T1.

I also think that Beaconing T1 is only ever good if you're going second, otherwise you're behind, especially if you rely on Beacon to find your Ralts. Beaconing on T2 for Ralts means that you definitely won't see Gardy by at least T4 since you can't play them down on the bench until T3 earliest, and I don't believe that's fast enough. I consider Fan Club to be a mandatory 2 of in any Stage 2 deck, with or without Nest Ball.

I agree with most of the things stated by Chicken Nuggest Master with a few exceptions.

Instead of bonking a Fairy energy, I would bonk 1 DCE for the Super Boost Energy. I think the deck still needs 8 Fairy Energy for Secret Spring, and while DCE is a great damage boost to Gardevoir GX, it's also one of the cards that makes me cry the most whenever I play Gardy and I see a DCE in hand and no Fairy energy.

Replacing a DCE with a Super Boost Energy gives you a pseudo 9th Fairy Energy specifically for your Gardy, and at the same time it's still double the power of a single DCE under the right circumstances.

All that being said, for the time being I'm going to continue running 8/4 simply because I don't see myself setting up a total of 3 Gardevoir GX/non-GX in most games, and losing any 1 of your 3 Gardy spells for a large damage drop. It's a risk reward card that I'm not comfortable playing yet.

Personally, I think 2 Diantha is the right number. You want to be able to see it in your hand naturally often enough to not have to go out of your way to Lele for it after a KO, and at the same time you don't want to see it too often. I have found 2 to be the satisfactory count. Even if I see Diantha too early, I'll just let the first copy be discard fodder for Ultra Ball after confirming that I do have the 2nd copy in deck.

I also don't think 2 Kirlia is needed at all anymore. Post rotation we are no longer in a format where we are worried about devolve KOs as a prominent strategy from Espeon EX, and with the addition of Alolan Ninetales GX fairy, the whole point is to be able to guarantee the Rare Candy/Ultra Ball for guaranteed Stage 2s. I've been playing 4/0/3(1) in playtesting and I find 0 problems with it, recently bumping it up to 4/0/3(2) myself for a top heavy deck. We can turn those Kirlia into things like another Lele GX or items like Pal Pad to increase consistency towards the primary strategy of using Alolan Ninetales GX to set us up.

 

[Dark Espeon]

Hi Chicken Nugget Master,

Thanks for the review. I will be sure to use Ditto Prism Star instead of one of the Alolan Vulpix. I want to retain Lillie and Diantha in this deck since both cards worked real well for me in the new SM-on format which is more focused on items and playing down ones hand. Most of the time I have drawn at least three cards with Lillie after turn one and Diantha recycles needed resources that cannot be accessed otherwise. I will consider a second Tapu Lele Gx but most decks now tend to run a slimmer Tapu Lele GX line and focus more on a stable number of draw supporter. The main reason for this is that we will still be in a ohko format in SM-on. I am also not a fan of Copycat since most faster decks tend to end their turn with a low hand size. Zoroark GX is an exception in some cases but he is not the most dominant force in the meta around here. There are much faster decks able to ohko the defender from turn two to three on. Personally I wanted to focus more on Gardevoir non-GX since it hits numbers with Choice Band and use Gardevoir GX more as an acceleration engine since most ohko decks are able to knock Gardevoir Gx out in one hit. For that reason I see more value in a deck that focuses more on non-GX Pokémon and this is the route I wanted to take with this deck. However I might cut one Kirlia to fit in a third Gardevoir non-GX to get access to it easier with Ditto Prism Star as the fifth Ralts or the third Alolan Vulpix.

Hi Duo,

Thanks for the review. As mentioned in my response to Chicken Nugget Master I want to focus a little more on the non-GX attackers here. The main reason for this is that we have access to Basic Pokémon that can deliver ohkos to stage 2 Pokémon. this poses the question on why to use a stage 2 deck when you can do the same with a Basic. I believe that focusing a lot more on the non-GX attackers could be a solid approach which justifies the burdon to use a setup deck instead of a faster and inherently more consistent Basic Pokémon deck. I will be sure to cut one Alolan Vulpix and one Kirlia to include one Ditto Prism Star and a third Gardevoir GX to have a more consistent accelerator. I will also cut one Double Colorless Energy for Super Boost Energy to check out how it works.