Hi all,
When I first saw Kyurem GX, I immediately saw potential in it being a fantastic Pokemon to partner with Garbodor. It has a lot of similarities to Drampa, but a lot more aggressive than it which I will elaborate below.
Attacks:
[Fire] Shred (40): This attack's damage isn't affected by any effects on your opponent's Active Pokémon.
[Fire][Water][Colorless] Enraged Blade (80+): If this Pokémon has any damage counters on it, this attack does 80 more damage.
[Fire][Fire][Water][Colorless] Dragon Nova GX (200): Your opponent's Active Pokémon is now Burned and Paralyzed.
What first stood out to me is Kyurem's first attack, Shred, doing a flat 40 for one energy. This doesn't seem that impressive, but in the expanded format, we have Muscle Band, which can bring that 40 up to 60 and take knock outs on Phantumps, Zoruas, Ralts, and other 60 HP basics. Overall, for one energy, it's a pretty decent early game attack, which can either score cheap knock outs or soften threats for the late game.
The second attack, Enraged Blade, is like a reverse Berserk, +10 more damage. Berserk can be tricky to activate, requiring one to attack with Tapu Lele/Trubbish/Tauros-GX in the early game and hope for the opponent to hit into it, then retreat, or play Rainbow Energy onto something on the bench, both options taking a total of 3 turns to set up. The third option, playing either Po Town or Team Magma's, is faster but is also no longer a viable option in the Expanded metagame because Parallel City is so necessary to combat Zoroark, which would otherwise give Drampa GX a lot of trouble.
Thus, Enraged Blade is a much faster version of Drampa's Berserk, being able to trigger either from an opponent hitting into Kyurem-GX or you activating itself with Rainbow Energy. Rainbow Energy + Double Dragon Energy will allow you to pretty easily start swinging for 160 damage as early as turn 2.
The GX attack is also pretty useful. With a Choice Band attached, you can OHKO a fresh Wailord without Hard Charm attached, which is a pretty neat perk. Otherwise, Muscle Band + Burn damage and an auto paralysis effect allows you to be able to be reasonably sure in taking out just about anything in the game. While it doesn't provide an out to a bad hand like Drampa's Big Wheel can, it's still by no means a bad GX attack and it goes in line with Kyurem GX being a more aggressive Drampa GX.
Finally, the new Mysterious Treasure item synergizes exceptionally well with the idea of Kyurem/Garbodor. Given the right build, Mysterious Treasure can search out anything in such an archetype and allows the deck to run very smoothly.
Here's a sample list I've come up with:
Card explanations (list is an edited version of the Drampa/Garb that's been doing well at Expanded tournaments):
3 Kyurem-GX: Most Drampa/Garb lists only run 2 Drampas. This is because you don't necessarily want to start Drampa since you want your opponent to hit into a non-Drampa Pokemon first to activate Berserk, and also because you typically don't need more than 2 Drampas in a game. Since Kyurem-GX wants to attack early with Shred and take damage to activate its second attack, you want to start Kyurem, thus there's a higher count of it than would be in its counterpart in Drampa/Garb.
1/3 - Choice Band/Muscle Band split: I felt that the jump from 40 to 60 damage you can achieve with Shred well justified the use of more Muscle Bands than Choice Bands. Still, I felt that the Choice Band is a very good item to have to OHKO the aforementioned Wailord with the GX attack, as well as scoring KOs on 190 HP GXs. This is something that should be tested for sure.
2 Enhanced Hammer: This is out of concern for the Zoroark matchup. Since Kyurem doesn't have Righteous Edge, I felt that it was important to have 2 Enhanced Hammers for to get rid of Double Colorless energy and help slow Zoroark and other DCE reliant decks down. Ideally, you'd use Parallel City + Garbotoxin + Enhanced Hammer + N to a smaller hand in this matchup. I've been trying to play around with Enhanced Hammer in a lot of builds right now, and I tend to like it a lot.
1 Dowsing Machine: This one I'm a little torn on. I think Computer Search might be a better fit because of Kyurem's more aggressive nature, and you can search out DDE or Rainbow with it.
1 Psychic energy: Don't know if it's better to have this psychic energy or a basic fire. I'm thinking you get more utility out of a psychic energy simply because going from 9/9 to 8/9 Shred compatible energy is an 11% drop, while going from 4/9 to 5/9 Trashalanche compatible energy is a 25% percent increase. Or in short, the relative increase for Trashalanche is bigger than a relative decrease in Shred.
1 Acerola: I cut down on an Acerola but am keeping one because it's a very strong card, and it's especially versatile in a deck that runs 4 Rainbow Energy. You can do tricks like momentarily turning off Garbotoxin without Field Blowing yourself, reusing Tapu Lele, getting rid of benched liabilities, healing, or picking up energies attached to something.
I think there's a lot going for Kyurem-GX in the Expanded metagame. Access to Muscle Band and Double Dragon Energy really help its viability, while synergizing very well with Garbodor and Mysterious Treasure. What do you all think?
When I first saw Kyurem GX, I immediately saw potential in it being a fantastic Pokemon to partner with Garbodor. It has a lot of similarities to Drampa, but a lot more aggressive than it which I will elaborate below.
Attacks:
[Fire] Shred (40): This attack's damage isn't affected by any effects on your opponent's Active Pokémon.
[Fire][Water][Colorless] Enraged Blade (80+): If this Pokémon has any damage counters on it, this attack does 80 more damage.
[Fire][Fire][Water][Colorless] Dragon Nova GX (200): Your opponent's Active Pokémon is now Burned and Paralyzed.
What first stood out to me is Kyurem's first attack, Shred, doing a flat 40 for one energy. This doesn't seem that impressive, but in the expanded format, we have Muscle Band, which can bring that 40 up to 60 and take knock outs on Phantumps, Zoruas, Ralts, and other 60 HP basics. Overall, for one energy, it's a pretty decent early game attack, which can either score cheap knock outs or soften threats for the late game.
The second attack, Enraged Blade, is like a reverse Berserk, +10 more damage. Berserk can be tricky to activate, requiring one to attack with Tapu Lele/Trubbish/Tauros-GX in the early game and hope for the opponent to hit into it, then retreat, or play Rainbow Energy onto something on the bench, both options taking a total of 3 turns to set up. The third option, playing either Po Town or Team Magma's, is faster but is also no longer a viable option in the Expanded metagame because Parallel City is so necessary to combat Zoroark, which would otherwise give Drampa GX a lot of trouble.
Thus, Enraged Blade is a much faster version of Drampa's Berserk, being able to trigger either from an opponent hitting into Kyurem-GX or you activating itself with Rainbow Energy. Rainbow Energy + Double Dragon Energy will allow you to pretty easily start swinging for 160 damage as early as turn 2.
The GX attack is also pretty useful. With a Choice Band attached, you can OHKO a fresh Wailord without Hard Charm attached, which is a pretty neat perk. Otherwise, Muscle Band + Burn damage and an auto paralysis effect allows you to be able to be reasonably sure in taking out just about anything in the game. While it doesn't provide an out to a bad hand like Drampa's Big Wheel can, it's still by no means a bad GX attack and it goes in line with Kyurem GX being a more aggressive Drampa GX.
Finally, the new Mysterious Treasure item synergizes exceptionally well with the idea of Kyurem/Garbodor. Given the right build, Mysterious Treasure can search out anything in such an archetype and allows the deck to run very smoothly.
Here's a sample list I've come up with:
##Pokémon - 15
* 3 Kyurem-GX ???
* 1 Oricorio GRI 56
* 3 Tapu Lele-GX GRI 60
* 4 Trubbish PLS 65
* 2 Garbodor GRI 51
* 2 Garbodor BKP 57
##Trainer Cards - 36
* 1 Rescue Stretcher GRI 130
* 1 Acerola BUS 112
* 4 VS Seeker PHF 109
* 3 Parallel City BKT 145
* 3 N FCO 105
* 1 Choice Band GRI 121
* 3 Professor Sycamore BKP 107
* 1 Colress PLS 135
* 2 Guzma BUS 115
* 4 Float Stone BKT 137
* 1 Teammates PRC 160
* 1 Brigette BKT 161
* 2 Enhanced Hammer GRI 124
* 4 Mysterious Treasure FLI 113
* 1 Field Blower GRI 125
* 1 Dowsing Machine PLS 128
* 3 Muscle Band XY 121
##Energy - 9
* 4 Rainbow Energy SUM 137
* 4 Double Dragon Energy ROS 97
* 1 Psychic Energy
Total Cards - 60
* 3 Kyurem-GX ???
* 1 Oricorio GRI 56
* 3 Tapu Lele-GX GRI 60
* 4 Trubbish PLS 65
* 2 Garbodor GRI 51
* 2 Garbodor BKP 57
##Trainer Cards - 36
* 1 Rescue Stretcher GRI 130
* 1 Acerola BUS 112
* 4 VS Seeker PHF 109
* 3 Parallel City BKT 145
* 3 N FCO 105
* 1 Choice Band GRI 121
* 3 Professor Sycamore BKP 107
* 1 Colress PLS 135
* 2 Guzma BUS 115
* 4 Float Stone BKT 137
* 1 Teammates PRC 160
* 1 Brigette BKT 161
* 2 Enhanced Hammer GRI 124
* 4 Mysterious Treasure FLI 113
* 1 Field Blower GRI 125
* 1 Dowsing Machine PLS 128
* 3 Muscle Band XY 121
##Energy - 9
* 4 Rainbow Energy SUM 137
* 4 Double Dragon Energy ROS 97
* 1 Psychic Energy
Total Cards - 60
Card explanations (list is an edited version of the Drampa/Garb that's been doing well at Expanded tournaments):
3 Kyurem-GX: Most Drampa/Garb lists only run 2 Drampas. This is because you don't necessarily want to start Drampa since you want your opponent to hit into a non-Drampa Pokemon first to activate Berserk, and also because you typically don't need more than 2 Drampas in a game. Since Kyurem-GX wants to attack early with Shred and take damage to activate its second attack, you want to start Kyurem, thus there's a higher count of it than would be in its counterpart in Drampa/Garb.
1/3 - Choice Band/Muscle Band split: I felt that the jump from 40 to 60 damage you can achieve with Shred well justified the use of more Muscle Bands than Choice Bands. Still, I felt that the Choice Band is a very good item to have to OHKO the aforementioned Wailord with the GX attack, as well as scoring KOs on 190 HP GXs. This is something that should be tested for sure.
2 Enhanced Hammer: This is out of concern for the Zoroark matchup. Since Kyurem doesn't have Righteous Edge, I felt that it was important to have 2 Enhanced Hammers for to get rid of Double Colorless energy and help slow Zoroark and other DCE reliant decks down. Ideally, you'd use Parallel City + Garbotoxin + Enhanced Hammer + N to a smaller hand in this matchup. I've been trying to play around with Enhanced Hammer in a lot of builds right now, and I tend to like it a lot.
1 Dowsing Machine: This one I'm a little torn on. I think Computer Search might be a better fit because of Kyurem's more aggressive nature, and you can search out DDE or Rainbow with it.
1 Psychic energy: Don't know if it's better to have this psychic energy or a basic fire. I'm thinking you get more utility out of a psychic energy simply because going from 9/9 to 8/9 Shred compatible energy is an 11% drop, while going from 4/9 to 5/9 Trashalanche compatible energy is a 25% percent increase. Or in short, the relative increase for Trashalanche is bigger than a relative decrease in Shred.
1 Acerola: I cut down on an Acerola but am keeping one because it's a very strong card, and it's especially versatile in a deck that runs 4 Rainbow Energy. You can do tricks like momentarily turning off Garbotoxin without Field Blowing yourself, reusing Tapu Lele, getting rid of benched liabilities, healing, or picking up energies attached to something.
I think there's a lot going for Kyurem-GX in the Expanded metagame. Access to Muscle Band and Double Dragon Energy really help its viability, while synergizing very well with Garbodor and Mysterious Treasure. What do you all think?
Anywho, great list wouldnt change anything, anything I would change is my odd personal preference that wouldnt help, im lost for words, this is simply incredible. I would maybe throw in a 2-2 Line of Altaria for the extra damage off the get go, while your settinf up Garbodor? Then maybe Super Scoop up the Alts if your lucky? Then maybe add Battle Compressor for consistency facilitation?
