Giratina-EX Variants

Camoclone

Camoclone

TCG Articles Head
Member
This thread is used for all competitive discussion on Giratina-EX variants in the Standard format. This includes strategies, playstyles, and techs.

You may post decklists here, but only as a means to add to the discussion. If you're looking for advice on your list, post in the Deck Garage.

Articles:

Giratina-EX / Reshiram Skeleton List:

Pokémon: 11
  • 4 Giratina-EX (AOR 57)
  • 4 Reshiram (ROS 63)
  • 2 Hydreigon-EX (ROS 62)
  • 3 Shaymin-EX (ROS 77)
Trainers/Supporters/Stadiums: 30
  • 4 Professor Sycamore
  • 2 Lysandre
  • 1 Professor Birch's Observations
  • 1 Judge
  • 4 VS Seeker
  • 4 Ultra Ball
  • 3 Acro Bike
  • 3 Trainers' Mail
  • 3 Switch
  • 2 Enhanced Hammer
  • 2 Sky Field
  • 1 Faded Town
Energy: 11
  • 7 Fire Energy
  • 4 Double Dragon Energy

Open Spots: 6


Giratina-EX / Seismitoad-EX Skeleton List:

Pokémon: 9
  • 4 Seismitoad-EX (FFI 20)
  • 2 Giratina-EX (AOR 57)
  • 2 Shaymin-EX (ROS 77)
  • 1 Hoopa-EX (AOR 37)
Trainers/Supporters/Stadiums: 40
  • 4 Professor Sycamore
  • 2 Lysandre
  • 1 Professor Birch's Observations
  • 1 Judge
  • 1 Team Flare Grunt
  • 1 Xerosic
  • 1 Giovanni's Scheme
  • 4 VS Seeker
  • 4 Ultra Ball
  • 4 Crushing Hammer
  • 4 Super Scoop Up
  • 3 Trainers' Mail
  • 3 Muscle Band
  • 2 Enhanced Hammer
  • 2 Head Ringer
  • 2 Team Aqua's Secret Base
Energy: 7
  • 4 Double Colorless Energy
  • 3 Double Dragon Energy

Open Spots: 4
 
Last edited:
I've been loving this card in Standard. Almost every deck relies on either Special Energy, Megas, Stadiums, or Tools. That is a lot of stuff to lock your opponent out of. The Special Energy part is especially crippling. I haven't tested the mirror match, but it's probably terrible lol. The variant I'm playing is with Reshiram and Hydreigon-EX. I feel it's the most stable and consistent out of all of them. It also has some room for a bit of disruption and nifty tech cards. I'm consistently getting turn 2 Chaos Wheels, although I have gotten them on turn 1 on occasion.

My question for all of you: Which Stadiums are you playing with Giratina? I'm playing 1 Sky Field, 1 Fairy Garden (for Double Dragon Energy), 1 Faded Town, and 1 Silent Lab. I love Sky Field, as I play 3 Shaymin-EX, but there are some matchups where it's crucial to lock your opponent out of Sky Field (M Rayquaza, Raichu), so I'm limiting it to a low count. Silent Lab is your only way to beat Aegislash-EX, but is terrible to play down at any other time, as every single one of your Pokemon is a Basic Pokemon with an Ability lol. Fairy Garden is nice for mobility sometimes, and Faded Town helps seal up the Mega matchups that play Hex Maniac.
 
Machamp The Champion said:
I've been loving this card in Standard. Almost every deck relies on either Special Energy, Megas, Stadiums, or Tools. That is a lot of stuff to lock your opponent out of. The Special Energy part is especially crippling. I haven't tested the mirror match, but it's probably terrible lol. The variant I'm playing is with Reshiram and Hydreigon-EX. I feel it's the most stable and consistent out of all of them. It also has some room for a bit of disruption and nifty tech cards. I'm consistently getting turn 2 Chaos Wheels, although I have gotten them on turn 1 on occasion.

My question for all of you: Which Stadiums are you playing with Giratina? I'm playing 1 Sky Field, 1 Fairy Garden (for Double Dragon Energy), 1 Faded Town, and 1 Silent Lab. I love Sky Field, as I play 3 Shaymin-EX, but there are some matchups where it's crucial to lock your opponent out of Sky Field (M Rayquaza, Raichu), so I'm limiting it to a low count. Silent Lab is your only way to beat Aegislash-EX, but is terrible to play down at any other time, as every single one of your Pokemon is a Basic Pokemon with an Ability lol. Fairy Garden is nice for mobility sometimes, and Faded Town helps seal up the Mega matchups that play Hex Maniac.
Click to expand...

How does the deck run without Vileplume? I feel that despite them not being able to play all of the other stuff, the trainers still helps your opponent a lot (when it comes to dead draws, tools, etc.).
And in my opinion, I'd play Hex Maniac over Silent Lab and Hydreigon EX over Fairy Garden. The stadium line should be devoted to either skyfield or faded town. Those seem bad, but the other two stadiums help your opponent too much.
 
I trim down the Vileplume line down to 3-2-2 in my version, and add level balls to search them out quickly. Float stone isn't standard until the next set, but Hydreigon-EX works quite well for a substitute.

One interesting card I'm fond of using in this deck is Cassius - It can shuffle a heavily damaged Giratina-EX back into your deck, as well as spare the Special Energy attached to it. Of course, I play it alongside AZ.

I'm curious as to why Acro Bike is in the Skeleton deck list, as it seems odd to use in an Item locked game.
 
Elbow said:
How does the deck run without Vileplume? I feel that despite them not being able to play all of the other stuff, the trainers still helps your opponent a lot (when it comes to dead draws, tools, etc.).
And in my opinion, I'd play Hex Maniac over Silent Lab and Hydreigon EX over Fairy Garden. The stadium line should be devoted to either skyfield or faded town. Those seem bad, but the other two stadiums help your opponent too much.
Click to expand...

I play Silent Lab over Hex Maniac because you have to hit Aegislash 2 times, or 4 times if they use a second one. Hex Maniac just can't be used 4 times during a game. 2 times isn't particularly easy either. Silent Lab isn't great, but I believe it's better for this purpose. I play 2 Hydreigon-EX and 1 Fairy Garden. Giratina only has 1 retreat if a Hydreigon is in play, so Fairy Garden can be used to retreat if needed, especially to pivot between 2 Giratinas. It's mostly a filler Stadium that doesn't help your opponent.

As I said, focusing on Sky Field gives you a very poor Rayquaza (Hex Maniac) and Raichu matchup, so I didn't want to play too many of those. Focusing on Faded Town seems a bit redundant, since you already block damage from Megas. And even for those Mega decks that play a lot of Hex Maniac, you only need the 1 Faded Town and it gets locked into play by Chaos Wheel.

I haven't tested the deck with Vileplume yet, but the deck seems a bit too clunky. My Reshiram/Hydreigon list runs a lot of Item draw and disruption (Acro Bike, Trainers' Mail, Enhanced Hammer, Startling Megaphone), and Vileplume would require me to remove a lot of them. These cards are necessary to get your early Chaos Wheel and deny your opponents of Special Energy and Tools for the whole game. Using Chaos Wheel on turn 3 or 4 might be too much time for your opponent to set up.
 
I have found the fairy variant to be very successful.

You run a 3-2 Aromatisse, 3 Xerneas, 4 Giratina, and 2 Shaymin as a base for Pokemon. The list will struggle against Aegislash, which is why you need to tech for it. You will run 3 Fairy Garden for sure, and run 1 Silent Lab for the Slash. You will also run a copy of the Hex Maniac for the Slash. In my list, I include 1 fire energy and one Stoke Charizard for the Slash. Stoke Charizard can also act as a psudeo Xerneas, and can drudge up it's needed fire energy to attack.

The fairy list is the perfect list to run against the mirror, which is why I include 1 Weakness Policy in my list to help Giratina KO those opposing Xerneas. Weakness Policy can also be applied to Xerneas when facing metal.

AZ is amazing in this list, or any Aromatisse list, as Max potion isn't reprinted for standard yet. I run two in my list for the purpose of healing, removing actives, and replaying Shaymins.
 
Machamp The Champion said:
I play Silent Lab over Hex Maniac because you have to hit Aegislash 2 times, or 4 times if they use a second one. Hex Maniac just can't be used 4 times during a game. 2 times isn't particularly easy either. Silent Lab isn't great, but I believe it's better for this purpose. I play 2 Hydreigon-EX and 1 Fairy Garden. Giratina only has 1 retreat if a Hydreigon is in play, so Fairy Garden can be used to retreat if needed, especially to pivot between 2 Giratinas. It's mostly a filler Stadium that doesn't help your opponent.

As I said, focusing on Sky Field gives you a very poor Rayquaza (Hex Maniac) and Raichu matchup, so I didn't want to play too many of those. Focusing on Faded Town seems a bit redundant, since you already block damage from Megas. And even for those Mega decks that play a lot of Hex Maniac, you only need the 1 Faded Town and it gets locked into play by Chaos Wheel.

I haven't tested the deck with Vileplume yet, but the deck seems a bit too clunky. My Reshiram/Hydreigon list runs a lot of Item draw and disruption (Acro Bike, Trainers' Mail, Enhanced Hammer, Startling Megaphone), and Vileplume would require me to remove a lot of them. These cards are necessary to get your early Chaos Wheel and deny your opponents of Special Energy and Tools for the whole game. Using Chaos Wheel on turn 3 or 4 might be too much time for your opponent to set up.
Click to expand...
I play a list with Hydreigon-EX, Giratina-EX, Unown, Vileplume, and Shaymin-EX as my only Pokemon and Forest of Giant Plants as my Stadium. I run 2 Hydreigon-EX for my dragons to have free retreat, and AZ/VS Seeker helps me to be able to pick up Vileplume, play any items I need to (including VS Seeker), and then Forest of Giant Plants allows me to play back down Vileplume before my opponents turn.
Against Aegislash-EX, I attack with Hydreigon-EX, whose Shred attack hits through Mighty Shield. A Muscle Band on Hydreigon-EX turns Shred into a two hit KO on Aegislash-EX.
Regice is a bit of a pain, but I am usually able to utilize a combination of Escape Rope and Lysandre to reset Resistance Blizzard and then KO Regice with a Muscle Band/Chaos Wheel.

Elbow said:
How does the deck run without Vileplume? I feel that despite them not being able to play all of the other stuff, the trainers still helps your opponent a lot (when it comes to dead draws, tools, etc.).
And in my opinion, I'd play Hex Maniac over Silent Lab and Hydreigon EX over Fairy Garden. The stadium line should be devoted to either skyfield or faded town. Those seem bad, but the other two stadiums help your opponent too much.
Click to expand...
I like the idea of Cassius alongside AZ. What count of both do you use?
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Im going to go ahead and say that Aromatina is nothing but a rogue variant, it concedes to a couple of hammers accompanied by Xerosic, unfortunately there arent any major standard tournaments to develop a metagame that punishes a greedy deck like that but when it comes to PTCGO, every standard deck runs hammers and Xerosic because of the importance of DDE/DCE. When they hammer off your DDE, all they have to do is Lysandre your Aromatisse or something with a lot of fairy energy on it and you lost. Things might differ in your local paper metagame though.

Because of that, I think the most competitive Giratina decks are those that can protect the DDE with either Seismitoad or Vileplume (mostly Seismitoad, I dont think Vileplume is a good card). Especially Seismitoad / Giratina is an extremely strong deck that plays Hoopa to get both your threats and a free Bianca with it. Seismitoad slows the enemy and covers Giratinas weakness to special energy hate and Giratina covers Toad weakness to Vespiquen.

Toad / Giratina is the deck to beat in standard atm imo.
 
What about a Bronzong/Giratina deck? You could still include a couple of Toad as tech cards, and you could also use Tyrantrum-EX to swing for big damage and take out an Aegislash if necessary.
 
Chewy said:
Im going to go ahead and say that Aromatina is nothing but a rogue variant, it concedes to a couple of hammers accompanied by Xerosic, unfortunately there arent any major standard tournaments to develop a metagame that punishes a greedy deck like that but when it comes to PTCGO, every standard deck runs hammers and Xerosic because of the importance of DDE/DCE. When they hammer off your DDE, all they have to do is Lysandre your Aromatisse or something with a lot of fairy energy on it and you lost. Things might differ in your local paper metagame though.

Because of that, I think the most competitive Giratina decks are those that can protect the DDE with either Seismitoad or Vileplume (mostly Seismitoad, I dont think Vileplume is a good card). Especially Seismitoad / Giratina is an extremely strong deck that plays Hoopa to get both your threats and a free Bianca with it. Seismitoad slows the enemy and covers Giratinas weakness to special energy hate and Giratina covers Toad weakness to Vespiquen.

Toad / Giratina is the deck to beat in standard atm imo.
Click to expand...
I would agree with your assessment. I think Seismitoad Giritina would not do well against Manectric Regice
Ms Hugo said:
What about a Bronzong/Giratina deck? You could still include a couple of Toad as tech cards, and you could also use Tyrantrum-EX to swing for big damage and take out an Aegislash if necessary.
Click to expand...
That is a fun list. It's not gonna lock em down right away like with toad involved though. It's also nice to see a promo get love :)
 
Chewy said:
Because of that, I think the most competitive Giratina decks are those that can protect the DDE with either Seismitoad or Vileplume (mostly Seismitoad, I dont think Vileplume is a good card). Especially Seismitoad / Giratina is an extremely strong deck that plays Hoopa to get both your threats and a free Bianca with it. Seismitoad slows the enemy and covers Giratinas weakness to special energy hate and Giratina covers Toad weakness to Vespiquen.

Toad / Giratina is the deck to beat in standard atm imo.
Click to expand...

I'm skeptical about that variant. Not streaming a card lock continuously is not disrupting enough to do much damage to your opponents strategy. Your opponent will simply play their items when Giratina EX is your active Pokemon. And their Stadium cards and Special Energy when you have Seismitoad EX in play.

''Toad and Bats'' or ''Giraplume'' are better combinations if you asked me. Vileplume does an even job at securing Giratina's Double Colorless/Dragon Energy. You just have to get the right combination of trainer cards in your deck.
 
Addressing what everyone else has said, I'd consider Seismitoad and Giratina to be decent techs for each other's decks under certain circumstances, but combining the two would just spread the deck out too thin by making you switch between what you're locking down as opposed to keeping a stable and consistent lockdown going.

Regarding Giraplume specifically, would PHF Wobbuffet be a decent tech? As long as you had a means to switch it back out again before the opponent's turn starts, it could help by deactivating Vileplume's ability long enough to use your own items for a turn before Switching/retreating out to turn the item lock back on before the opponent's turn begins.
 
KoL said:
Regarding Giraplume specifically, would PHF Wobbuffet be a decent tech? As long as you had a means to switch it back out again before the opponent's turn starts, it could help by deactivating Vileplume's ability long enough to use your own items for a turn before Switching/retreating out to turn the item lock back on before the opponent's turn begins.
Click to expand...

AZ does a really good job at that. You pick Vileplume and play your item cards. Then with Forest of Giant Plants in play you can lay him down again in just one turn. AZ is very useful in other ways too, you can re-use Shaymin EX and Hoopa EX to get a full hand. Also when you have a Pokemon stuck in the active spot AZ is the only way to switch to another Pokemon.

You could make a variant with Wobbuffet, Hoopa and Mystery Energy. The problem is that you can only switch once during your turn. It would only work after one of your pokemon has been knocked out. Too bad you can't play a switch or escape rope.
 
Here's my current list for those interested:
Pokemon: 19
3X Giratina-EX
2X Hydreigon-EX
2X Shaymin-EX
3-3-3 Oddish, Gloom, Vileplume
3X Unown

Items: 11
2X Level Ball
3X Ultra Ball
3X Trainer's Mail
3X Muscle Band

Trainers: 15
3X AZ
1X Cassius
2X Lysandre
1X Pokemon Centre Lady
2X Prof. Birch's Observation
3X Sycamore
1X Teammates
2X Tierno

Stadiums: 4
4X Forest of Giant Plants

Energy: 11
4X Double Dragon
4X Colorless
3X Grass

Basically, you want to try and get Vileplume out ASAP, turn 1 hopefully. Use the level balls and great balls to search out the Vileplume line/Shaymin's if you're needing some card draw. Trainer's mail is to search out the stadium quickly as well. Unown is just for some extra draw support, though sometimes you get stuck with one as a starter pokemon which is annoying. No vs seekers in the deck, as they'd be useless anyways once you're item locked. 3 AZ's is enough, I use to run 4 and found it to be a little clunky. Cassius is a nice single, comes in handy late game when you're deck is running low. I only run 3 Sycamore because I use to find myself decking out too quickly. Muscle band is in the deck if you can get one on a Giratina or Hydreigon early game before locking. I use to run 3 Lucky helmet but again, was decking out too quickly with them. I'm thinking about throwing a single copy of the new Tyrantrum-EX for that single big hitter late game but am unsure how it would run.
 
For seismitoad/giratina why the 2 aqua's secret base? I really don't see how this is helpful.
 
Fokale said:
For seismitoad/giratina why the 2 aqua's secret base? I really don't see how this is helpful.
Click to expand...

The deck needs some sort of Stadium as a counter. A Parallel City can reduce Seismitoad's already pitiful damage by even more. It's also nice to lock your opponent's Stadium out of play by using Chaos Wheel after using the Stadium. The Retreat Costs of the Pokemon are already too high to reliably use, so Team Aqua's Secret Base is nice to disrupt your opponent in an already disruptive deck.
 
Machamp The Champion said:
The deck needs some sort of Stadium as a counter. A Parallel City can reduce Seismitoad's already pitiful damage by even more. It's also nice to lock your opponent's Stadium out of play by using Chaos Wheel after using the Stadium. The Retreat Costs of the Pokemon are already too high to reliably use, so Team Aqua's Secret Base is nice to disrupt your opponent in an already disruptive deck.
Click to expand...

This is true, my list currently runs 2 faded town and 1 silent lab. I feel like these are more game changing than aqua's secret base, but it might be worth further testing. I have actually been toying with the idea of a 1 of parallel city to lock into play against m ray, as you would be attacking with giratina most of the time anyway.
 
Fokale said:
This is true, my list currently runs 2 faded town and 1 silent lab. I feel like these are more game changing than aqua's secret base, but it might be worth further testing. I have actually been toying with the idea of a 1 of parallel city to lock into play against m ray, as you would be attacking with giratina most of the time anyway.
Click to expand...

Parallel City does combo well with Giratina-EX, being able to lock your opponent at 3 Benched Pokemon. Faded Town is also a nice anti-Mega card, especially since Seismitoad-EX doesn't do much damage to them. I'm not sure if I like the Silent Lab, since the deck loves Scoundrel Ring and Set Up. It's hard to incorporate Silent Lab into anything with every deck relying on Shaymin-EX to draw cards.
 
Machamp The Champion said:
Parallel City does combo well with Giratina-EX, being able to lock your opponent at 3 Benched Pokemon. Faded Town is also a nice anti-Mega card, especially since Seismitoad-EX doesn't do much damage to them. I'm not sure if I like the Silent Lab, since the deck loves Scoundrel Ring and Set Up. It's hard to incorporate Silent Lab into anything with every deck relying on Shaymin-EX to draw cards.
Click to expand...

The silent lab is mostly for hitting through Aegislash EX, when you can't play hex maniac. However, it can sometimes be a problem when you have no other stadium to replace it with.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top