I like this card. At first, I was hesitant to place this in my Gengar deck, but not only did one of these cards not threaten the consistency of a Stormfront Gengar deck, having one of these in there compliments it, and it's even good enough to play on it's own.
What's great about this card? It's great for moving damage around, making getting more than one KO in a turn relatively easy to do. Curse will move one damage counter from a pokemon on your opponent's side to a pokemon you'd rather see a damage counter on, which can (among other things) give you one more pokemon to share the misery of Gengar lv X's Compound Pain.
Shadow Skip is great with Stormfront Gengar, because you can still benefit from Fainting Spell while using a consistent, moderate-damage attack. Because SF Gengar retreats for free as well, you can have a consistent attack that hits the bench as well each turn. Expert Belt bring Shadow Skip's base damage up to 80, and with Gengar instantly swapping out to the relative safety of the bench, why not?
One thing that slows it down in my opinion is the 3 energy cost of it's attack, which gives you reason to run something with it so as to have a good cheap attack. Stormfront Gengar is a good choice, but you can also run Crobat G and Gallade 4 lv X, either of which would combo well with Curse and Gengar lv X, if you should choose to also play that.
Nidoqueen from Rising Rivals adds to any Gengar deck's survivability, and because Gengar retreats for free, you'll be able to set up a scenario in which you have a Gengar tag team, with one of them being completely refreshed every few turns.
DP Dusknoir is an excellent tech, you can use it when your opponent has 4 or more benched pokemon to send one of them back to their deck. Use it to get rid of Claydols and other cards they use for support, or get rid of something they put a lot of effort into setting up to make their face fall. Use Curse to spread onto the rest. Stormfront Dusknoir also works, because it's Damage Even places damage counters on any of your opponents pokemon you like, and Curse can likely turn your plans into another KO for you. Dusknoir lv X will be the last thing your opponent will want to see when you're already spreading and moving damage around.
If you're looking to kill this card, you have some choices. If you pick Ampharos from Platinum, it's Damage Bind will prevent Gengar from using Curse if it has at least one damage counter. In fact, many of the cards played with Gengar also use PokePowers, so the same card will make Gengar want the aid of Nidoqueen to continue using Curse, though there won't be any way for Stormfront Gengar to use it's Fainting Spell, and no way for Dusknoir lv X to use it's Ectoplasm. This card would hurt many of the cards played with Gengar, including Gengar itself.
If you have Lucario GL in play, Secret Wonders Weavile can KO Gengar with Dark Engage and with 2 special Darkness Energy attached, which could be done with Shadow Charge. There are several problems with this. Having a PokePower, it will likely become a target of Stormfront Gengar's Shadow Room, taking away most of it's HP. Not only that, Shadow Charge is an attack, and it leaves Weavile vulnerable as long as it's active. Sadly, there aren't many Dark pokemon that are big right now, which is part of what makes Gengar such a good choice.
Absol G lv X works better. With Lucario GL in play, it can OHKO Gengar with Darkness Slugger. Without Lucario GL, it can do it with a special Darkness Energy and a Crobat G. Energy Gain makes it even faster. Yeah, having a PokePower makes Absol G a potential target for Stormfront Gengar, but the potential to mill at an opponent's deck and perhaps take away cards they can't do without makes it a good weapon against Gengar on yet another level. PokeTurn and do it again.
Gengar from Arceus gets a score of 4 out of 5.
A terrific card with a lot of cards that conveniently work for it. A Gengar deck has a lot of techs, and it should use them. However, it's held back by an attack that's relatively expensive, and is slowly losing favor to other top-tier decks, but don't allow that to discourage you from taking advantage of the nightmare that this card is.
