Discussion Incineroar-GX/Lurantis?

[xTITAN]

After looking at some of the Sun & Moon and Sun & Moon Strengthening cards, I noticed that Incineroar-GX from SM1 and Lurantis from SM1+ could have some nice synergy.

Incineroar's first attack, 'Hustling Strike', does 10 damage, plus 20 more for each Fire 'mon on your bench. Lurantis' ability, 'Sunny Day', makes each of your Grass and Fire 'mons do 20 more damage to your opponent's active Pokemon.

Lurantis is a stage 1 Pokemon, so Ancient Origins Flareon can turn it into a Fire type. This means that, while you have a Flareon on your bench, each Lurantis is adding 40 damage to Hustling Strike.

Don't forget, Choice Band is also a thing, so we can add another 30 to Incineroar's attack. At this point, with a Flareon, two Lurantis, a second Incineroar on your bench, and a Choice Band on your active Incineroar, you're doing 160 damage for one energy.

We also have Sky Field, so we can fit even more Fire 'mons on the bench, allowing Incineroar to potential OHKO for a single energy.

Also, remember that Incineroar-GX has a massive 250 HP, so your opponent's going to be two, or even three-shotting you. Incineroar-GX is only attacking for one energy, so we can use Max Potion to heal everything off of him, which is totally ridiculous. Another option is Flareon-EX. We can use its ability, 'Flash Fire', to move an energy off of a Flareon that we just evolved into with 'Energy Evolution' or off a damaged Incineroar to Max Potion it, all while powering up Flareon for a big Blaze Ball.

Do you guys think that Incineroar-GX is any good, or will become playable?

 

[Pizzadone]

Macho cat is nacho cat for this meta.

The problem with Incineroar GX is the start up time. Sure, he attacks for 1 energy, if you can evolve him and keep him that way. You need at least one turn to rare candy up this guy, best case scenario. Here's all of the hyped strategies that put a stop to that:

Decidueye -> T1 going first with 4 decidueye out KO's your main attacker. Additionally, Decidueye can go after your bench, and if he KO's flareon your damage output decreases dramatically if all you do is bench lurantis.
Espeon EX -> Devolves all of your opponent's actives by one stage. Absolutely destroys that rare candy, meaning you need to either stream candy (always difficult) or spend the extra time evolving up to Torracat, which gives your opponent leeway for a KO.
Lapras decks with Glaceon -> oops, now you're locked out AND they hit for super effective damage. Do you have a basic that can retaliate? There's a new stadium that removes fire weakness, soon, sure... but you want to be playing sky field or even forest of giant plants so you can have bench space to guarantee OHKOs by drawing with Shaymin and benching basics. Lapras is a literal OHKO, and setting up at least 2 big cats, 2 lurantis and a flareon is intensive enough in resource and turn draw without you consistently giving up 2 prizes. There's no GX Hoopa that can save you here.

Additional problems:
Aside from the consistency issues of keeping out a stage 2, 3 stage 1s, and probably using the remaining bench space for Shaymin or fire type basics, this is not currently a good meta call at any event.

• Everyone and their mother has a parallel city, sometimes 2-3.
• Almost everyone has decks that CAN deal 70 damage turn one through max elixir.
• Greninja, who you're (spoiler alert) weak to, will also get that turn to set up, and no matter how big your OHKOs are, you cannot prize trade with this guy. His shadow stitching will also snip your damage output way down.

Your post is entirely correct. When this strategy works, it's unstoppable. In a 2-shot meta, this deck can be great, and the max potion synergy is busted. This deck only suffers from the most critical problem of Greninja, while also losing to Greninja: its autoloss is to itself.

 

[xTITAN]

I did some testing, and not only is everything you said a problem, but there's just too much stuff to fit into one deck. Running Lurantis and Flareon takes up too much space, but without them you're not doing enough damage to really do much.