Pincer Lock (Gliscor / Crawdaunt)

[Ms Hugo]

Pokemon: 14

• 
  4 Gligar (PHF)
  4 Gliscor (PHF)
  3 Corphish
  3 Crawdaunt

Trainers/Supporters/Stadiums: 37

• 
  4 Professor Sycamore
  3 N
  4 Korrina
  2 Lysandre
  2 AZ
  
  3 Ultra Ball
  1 Professor's Letter
  1 Muscle Band
  2 Silver Bangle
  1 Sacred Ash
  2 Enhanced Hammer
  4 Crushing Hammer
  3 VS Seeker
  1 Head Ringer
  1 Scoop Up Cyclone
  3 Fighting Stadium

Energy: 9

• 
  4 Strong Energy
  5 Fighting Energy

Strategy:

Meant to be more of a disruptive/defence-orientated deck, this deck's gameplan is simple- knock off your opponent's energy with Crawdaunt's ability, then lock them out of attaching more by using Gliscor's Submission Hold. Enhanced Hammer allows for more energy discarding, and will probably be used to hit non-active Pokemon. Wobbuffet/Sigilyph are used for backup defence, but I'll probably end up cutting at least Wobbuffet.

Gliscor being a fighting-type means that it can use all of the Furious Fists support, including Strong Energy and Fighting Stadium to buff Submission Hold's miniscule 20 base attack. Nonetheless, it's still not going to be particularly strong- this deck's all about grinding down your opponent's resources.

However, it will probably lose to Seismitoad because of Gliscor's water weakness. But what deck doesn't?

 

[Kecleon-X]

Trust me when I say, you desperately need Crushing Hammer and Head Ringer in this deck. Crushing Hammer is good even with Crawdaunt because it can target the bench, not just the already locked active. Also, with a Bangle, Strong and a Fighting Stadium, Gliscor's damage goes up to 90, and as such, 2HKOing EXes. For these cards, I would take out the following:

-2 Wobbuffet (Not super necessary, and it doesn't really buy you much.)
-1 Sigilyph (In the end, you want to be attacking with Gliscor the whole time, ergo you don't want any other Pokemon active.)
-2 Frozen City (Why just dissuade your opponent from attaching Energy when you can just discard them?)
-1 Enhanced Hammer (You don't need three with four Crushing Hammer.)
-2 Muscle Band (Bangle is better with this deck.)

+4 Crushing Hammer (Aforementioned.)
+1 Fighting Stadium (Vital stadium for vital math is vital.)
+1 Head Ringer (Aforementioned.)
+2 Silver Bangle (Aforementioned.)

I would also try to make an attempt to add in Lysandre's Trump Card -- after I played this, I found that I burned through my deck extremely fast, coming extremely close to decking myself out on numerous occasions.

Hope I helped!

 

[Ms Hugo]

Have made most of the changes you suggested, thanks! LTC I did think about adding but stopped because it means shuffling your opponent's energy back into the deck as well- although thinking about it, they're probably also running a LTC and it means I can get my Hammers back, so I'll test with and without and see what happens.

I've added Head Ringer but there's no way I'll be able to afford it IRL...will just proxy it in for Leagues, hehe.

 

[Windfish]

I may be confused on the reading of Gliscor's Submission Hold. I thought that the 'Defending Pokemon' is the Pokemon receiving damage. But what if the opponent switches the 'Defending Pokemon' with one on the bench? Kind of undermines the strat, no?

 

[bbninjas]

I may be confused on the reading of Gliscor's Submission Hold. I thought that the 'Defending Pokemon' is the Pokemon receiving damage. But what if the opponent switches the 'Defending Pokemon' with one on the bench? Kind of undermines the strat, no?

I would say not necessarily. Gliscor already blocks energy retreating in a way due to its attack. Switches are unavoidable. Keldeo is somewhat countered with Head Ringers. You can also counter those built up on the bench using hammers, weakening forces that can be switched out.

 

[Ms Hugo]

I may be confused on the reading of Gliscor's Submission Hold. I thought that the 'Defending Pokemon' is the Pokemon receiving damage. But what if the opponent switches the 'Defending Pokemon' with one on the bench? Kind of undermines the strat, no?

I would say not necessarily. Gliscor already blocks energy retreating in a way due to its attack. Switches are unavoidable. Keldeo is somewhat countered with Head Ringers. You can also counter those built up on the bench using hammers, weakening forces that can be switched out.

This, also it locks down a potentially threatening Pokemon for a turn. If there's an Yveltal EX out front with a DCE and two Dark and you knock off the DCE with Enhanced Hammer and a Dark with Crawdaunt, they lose a turn even with switching.