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Standard Psychic Deck Ideas (M Gallade EX / Gourgeist)

amiibo_hunter

amiibo_hunter

Aspiring Trainer
Member
City Championships at Sutton Coldfield is coming up on the 2nd of January, and it is Expanded, so I'm not sure how to build my current deck. It focuses mainly on M Gallade EX, and Gourgeist, with support from Toxicroak and Gengar EX. It currently has 39-65 cards:

Pokemon: 19
  • 3-3 M Gallade EX (Main Attacker)
  • 4-3 Gourgeist (Confuse Ray - Spirit Scream)/2-2-2 Bats
  • 1 Toxicroak EX
  • 1 Gengar EX
  • 2 Wobuffet
  • 1-1 Meowstic (Ear Influence)
Trainers/Supporters/Stadiums: 26
  • 3 Gallade Spirit Link
  • 3 Level Ball
  • 3 Dimension Valley (For Stadium wars)
  • 3 Mega Turbo (Acceleration)
  • 3 VS Seeker
  • 3 Lysandre
  • 3 Ultra Ball
  • 4 Shauna
  • 1 Super Rod
  • 3 Sycamore
Energy: 12
  • 4 Mystery Energy
  • 8 Psychic Energy
Strategy:
 
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Personally, I think that Bats are better than Gourgeist in this deck because you can use the damage as an ability rather than an attack and if they use Rough Seas, then all the damage is gone from Gourgeist. Also, I don't think that Gengar and Toxicroak would help that much, so IMO, cut them. Maybe replace the Gourgeist, Gengar, and Croak with a 3-3-3 Bat line and 2 Shaymin. Beheeyem also uses an attack, so I think that you should cut it for some trainers/energy. Speaking of trainers, there are too many Zoom Lens. Seeing that you run a Mega, you should probably run the Spirit Link. I think that with Bats, or Gourgeist, 3 Level Ball is one too much. I think that you should cut a Level Ball, both Fan Clubs, and both Pokemon Communication. 4 Ultra Ball is definitely a must in this deck to get Gallade and Mewtwo and Crobat. 4 Sacred Ash is too much, one is fine. There are a lot of empty spots now, so use some energy. You need more than 4 Mystery Energy, especially for Gallade's 2-3 attack cost(depending on if you have a Dimension Valley in play.) Take out a Mystery Energy and fill some spots with Psychic Energy. Another reason for this is that Mega Turbo can't be used with Special Energy. I don't see a need for Jamming Net or Head Ringer, so I think you should cut those. 3 Lysandre is too much, but 2 is perfect. Birch is arguably better than Shauna because it averages 5.5 cards as opposed to Shauna's 5, but it really depends on which you're comfortable with. Tierno just isn't good. Sorry :(. 4 Sycamore is the best number to have for almost all decks. Hope this helps!:D
 
Thanks for the advice, but im scared using 3-3-3 bats because the worst case scenario is me stuck with a zubat, and silent lab is also quite popular. as im playing bats, do you suggest using rare candies, because im not sure how to work them in. thanks
 
As someone who has allot of experience playing mega gallade ill give you some pro-tips. First of Do not use Wide lens you should be using gallade spirit link and that its it maybe one muscle band for a back up attacker. Also if you want to effectively get damage spread to your opponents bench you should really use the flashfire forretress which has an ability to where you evolve it it does 10 damage to all your opponents pokemon. As for energy i used 9 total 7 psychics and 2 DCE. The DCE is for forretress and Shaymins(if you use them which you should sense you would run AZ with Forretress anyway) it might seem Weird to attack with forretress but it can OHKO Regice as well as do a number on Giratina both of which cause problems for MGallade(Iron Crash does 20+ 20 for each of your opponents retreat cost). Lastly i would suggest using the Roaring Skies Deoxys as it lets you attack and draw 2 cards (even on the 1st turn) as well as provide some early offense. As for the other things i would suggest 4 Sycamores and 3 Professor Birch for Draw supporters and then 1 or 2 shaymins also Acro bike can be a big plus in this deck. from there Hex Maniac, Lysandre, AZ and Xerosic is kind my idea standard supporter line. finnaly items you should use are 4 ultra balls and 4 vs seekers most good deck use these and you should as well level ball wont help 2 much and you should always have a way to get your main attacker on the field ASAP. Also you have a lot of tools currently but if you take out the wide lens and the jamming net you should be fine and put in Acro bikes/Trainers Mail. I hope this helps i know it might seem like i ripped apart your deck but this a good way to play MGallade.
 
Okay, I'll make mods if it's not too much for you, can you make a list? Also, can you suggest any other, non-Shaymin draw tools, because i am low on budget, along with other attackers, thanks in advance.
 
I did some testing, and I found that wobuffet would also be a good addition, so I think that could slot in somewhere
 
Wobbufett-bats is a great budget deck, and tech around 2 or 3 manectric and there you are, MVP psychic deck! However, I prefer Superpower Golurk AT (AO) Playing Golurk Eevees is a fantastic deck. Pair it with strong energy and focus sash, you got a deck that easily counters anything meta :)
 
Off and on, I have run Gallade-Gourgeist for a while now. Following are some of my thoughts for your consideration:

No doubt Mega Gallade EX needs an initial attacker to spread some damage in preparation for its Unwavering Blade attacks. IMO, XY Gourgesit serves that purpose THE best for several reasons:
  • The Basic Pumpkaboo can auto-Confuse the Defending Pokemon should you need to buy some time.
  • Gourgeist is a very serious threat too; both of its attacks PLACE damage counters which can not be countered by an Ability like Bench Barrier nor a Supporter like Hex Maniac. Spirit Scream is uniquely special when you need to gets lots of damage counters into play in just 1 turn - very effective against big HP Pokemon.
  • Gourgeist's Eerie Voice attack drops 2 damage counters on ALL of your opponent's Pokemon. So, you can actually get more damage counters into play faster with this attack vs. either the Bats (which rely heavily upon Super Sccop Ups (with 50% of failure IF you are not Item-locked) and/or AZ (which burns your Supporter use for the turn)).
  • Bats' advantages are the free retreat and their being able to target a single opposing Pokemon with multiple damage counter drops which is really helpful when your opponent decides to play with a small bench.
  • Forretress, when Lysandre'd to the active position, requires extra or more" resources to remove it.
The one Poke that ties all of the spread damage into a formidable threat is FLF Meowstic whose 1st attack allows you to move around all of your damage spread - imagine KO'ing 3 Shaymin EXs in 1 turn (which I've done several times)... lol

In regards to your list and considering the current meta, IMO:
  • Gengar EX, Toxicroak EX and/or Mewtwo EX are all solid partners, since they all for no or C energy cost can attack with(out) Dimension Valley in play. Another Poke I really like is Manectric EX (especially with an attached Assault Vest, Hard Charm or Muscle Band). This Pokemon has only C Retreat Cost, provides Weakness diversity, can hit opponent's benched Pokemon (i.e., also get more damage counters into play), and provides some protection for your Dark-weak Pokemon against major threats like Yveltal and Yveltal EX.
  • Beheeyem is another Pokemon requiring some setup, but not critical to the strategy, and should be replaced with Meowstic.
  • "Zoom" (I believe you mean Wide) Lens is not needed as much as Gallade Spirit Links.
  • Mega Turbo works only on discarded Basic energy, and you currently have no Basic energy in your list...
  • Head Ringer nor Jamming Net are "critical" either. You want to go "fast" and not be too concerned with "defensive" techs.
  • Poke Comms" or Pokemon Communications (?) is not legal in the Standard game format. Ultra Ball is the appropriate replacement in this case.
  • Multiple copies of Lysandre ae really not critical in this deck's case since the intent is to spread damage and get KOs as a result most of the time.
  • 4 Mysery energy is woefully insufficient. When these are gone, either by opponents' use of Hammer(s), Xerosic, Jiriachi (Promo), etc., game over for you.
Following are some suggested deck changes for your consideration:

-2 Beheeyem
-2 Elfyem
-3 "Zoom" Lens
-2 Pokemon Fan Club (using Balls will be a bit faster)
-2 Sacred Ash (Super Rod perhaps more flexibility)
-1 Head Ringer
-2 Jamming Net
-2 "PokeComms"
-2 Lysandre

+1 Mewostic
+1 Espurr
+1 Professor Sycamore
+1 Professor's Letter (to search and get Basic energy)
+1 Skyla (to search and get Trainer)
+2 Super Rod (recovers and recycles discarded Pokemeon and/or basic energy)
+3 Ultra Ball
+7 Psychic​

I hope you find these comments helpful.

Lastly, ensure your list has a total of 60 cards after you make the final deck changes, and please revise your list above.
 
My list i would recommend If you don't want to use shaymin which i completly understand because the thing is lysandre fodder.

Pokemon-16
3-3 MGallade Line
3-3 Forretress line
2-Deoxys
1-1 Octillery

Energy-9
7-Psychic Energy
2-DCE or Mystery energy

Trainers-36
4-Dimmension Vally
4-Ultra ball
2-Switch or Float Stone
4-Vs seeker
3-Mega Turbo
3-Acro Bike
1-Sacred Ash
3-Gallade Spirit Link
4-Proffesor Sycamore
2-Proffesor Birch
2-Briggette
1-AZ
1-Xerosic
1-Lysandre
1-Hex Maniac

As for why i think you should not use Gourgiest its mostly just because its an attack vs ability in order start the damage spread you need to wait a turn, Attack, and then when gougiest dies you bring in MGallade but with Forretress you don't need to attack so the ideal unwavering blade can happen on your second turn potentially
 
I completely agree with both of you, but i feel that most sweepers in the current meta (m sceptile, mega pretty much any other ex but giratina, primal duo and aggron), have a low enough retreat cost to not be significantly damaged by the attack, and can easily fresh water set, wasting the sacrifice of forretress getting KO, but with gourgeist, for virtually the same amount of energy, the only real threat is damage change mewtwo and a mega sceptile duo, the only pokemon which can heal the next turn, meaning that all other pokemon in the meta are susceptible to KO (providing confusion is still intact). Another reason why I prefer gourgeist is the opposite of what you said. As Gourgeist has an attack, which is where bats/forretress can be stopped (silent lab, hex maniac, bide barricade for forretress, and finally theta stop AT). I just generally prefer gourgeist for easy damage earlier in a game. So here is the new deck list.

Pokemon-18
3-3 M Gallade EX (Main Attacker)
4-3 Gourgeist (Confuse Ray - Spirit Scream)
1 Toxicroak EX
1 Gengar EX
1 Mewtwo EX
1-1 Meowstic (Ear Influence)
Trainers-31
3 Gallade Spirit Link
3 Level Ball (For Pumpkaboo/Gourgeist)
4 Dimension Valley (For Stadium wars)
1 Sacred Ash
3 Mega Turbo (Acceleration)
3 VS Seeker
1 Lysandre
3 Ultra Ball
1 Skyla
3 Shauna
2 Super Rod
4 Sycamore
Energies-11
4 Mystery Energy
7 Psychic

Thank you, everyone, for your help, I have one final problem which can be dealt with. City Championships is Expanded, so will this deck be safe from Laserbankers or other such decks that were annoying
 
amiibo_hunter said:
Thank you, everyone, for your help, I have one final problem which can be dealt with. City Championships is Expanded, so will this deck be safe from Laserbankers or other such decks that were annoying
Click to expand...
I suspect you will encounter "lots" of Blastoise decks, as well as Yveltal-Darkrai decks too. Lol... Gallade-Gourgeist becomes more lethal, IMO.

You have more options in the Expanded format. Consider the following:

  • Incorporating 4 Ht Lasers to poison an opponent's big HP EX first and then Spirit Scream'ing it - opponent's Pokemon is KOd between turns due to poison;
  • Incorporating Landorus EX (an excellent, 1-energy attacker that inflicts 30-30 damage) for attacking and protecting your Pumpkins;
  • (Manectric EX is still an option too for this role); or
  • Incorporating Dusknoir whose Ability allows you to move opponent's damage counters around. In this particular case you would not need Gallade EX lines at all.

Whichever option you chose, play well and have fun.
 
Knowing its expanded does change somethings as Gallade has a hard time in expanded mostly thanks to Keldeo/Blastois and MetwoNXD and Mew in night march. the choice for using Gourgiest is understandable but theirs a couple things i'd like to state that might affect your decision.
  • First off you mentioned how Forretress is blocked by ability blockers. you mentioned Silent Lab but remember thats only Basics also Hex Maniac would not be that big of an issue as its a wasted supporter on your opponents side if you just dont evolve that turn.
  • I would recommend a Ace Spec card either Scoop up cyclone or Computer Search
  • Level ball cannot search for Gourgiest as he has 100 HP.
  • using Hypnotoxic laser with Gourgiest has been something people used in the past but it requires almost a completly different build with lasers and exp share to play it and its very gimmicky.
  • I have never seen any player ever playing Fresh water set so you should not be worried about that however Keldeo and Manectric decks that use rough seas will be the bane of your deck.
  • Landorus and Manectric both use a non Psychic energy for there main attacks and would not be good
  • i recomend taking out Toxicroak, and Mewtwo as Toxicroak is only good with Virbank and Disruption Cards and mewtwo is only good With DCE.
  • If you have them I because its Expanded you should use N and Colress as other forms of Draw instead of Shauna.
Hope this Helps
 
Which Mewtwo-EX do you run because there is 2 in BREAKThrough. If this deck does go expanded, I would suggest adding an Ace Spec which I found rock gaurd is an awesome one in Mega Gallade so you can OHKO 170HP pokemon with 2 Psychic. Of coarse then you will have to use the turn end or Xerosic to discard the tool or tool retrieval also works so you can pick up the spirit link. I don't know if you would want to add this, but Mew-EX and Registeel-EX are good with Gallade. I have a Mega Gallade deck and I run 2 Mew-EX with 2 Registeel-EX and a 3/3/3 bats line and it works extremely well. If you go with bats, you may want to consider scoop up cyclone. Gourgiest I found did too little damage for an attack which is why I use bats for an ability and Mew/Steel for a higher amount of damage. Another tech that could be used is Absol (ROS 40/108) with cursed eye to move around damage counters to hit the things on the bench you really want to target down. Deoxys in ROS is good, but in this kind of deck it doesn't help with Gallade himself, so those could be some changes you could make to be more consistent. I think the Beeheyem line can go down to a 1/1 for the fact it may not do anything and also things can block damage not damage counters. It also doesn't spread damage. Instead it can do about 20-80 to 1 bench pokemon, but most of the time you will get 0-40 damage. for more draw support you could run a 2-2 octillery who has an ability that is: Once during your turn you can draw up to 5 cards. It is, for some players a budget Shaymin-EX. I hope you found these suggestions useful.
 
OK this sounds good, but could you tell me what to remove awesomeMSG, and i'm using shatter shot mewtwo. I'm not sure where to cut this deck for EXpanded so can you guys post suggestions, thanks.
 
After more deck testing, I found I needed to make edits so, here is the new list. (Things with an asterisk have been removed because I cannot obtain them at present)

- 3 Level Ball (Virtually useless)
-1 Shauna *
-1 Sycamore *
-1 Super Rod *
- 1-1 Meowstic Line *
-1 Skyla *
-1 Ultra Ball *

+ 3 Great Ball (My bad shuffling skills helps me use this card)
+ 4 HTL
+ 1 Elesa (To get out SL, Rock Guard
+ 1 Rock Guard
+ 1 Mew EX
 
Pokemon-18
3-3 M Gallade EX (Main Attacker)
4-3 Gourgeist (Confuse Ray - Spirit Scream)
1 Toxicroak EX
1 Gengar EX
1 Mewtwo EX (Shatter Shot)
1 Mew EX (Versatile)

Trainers-31
3 Gallade Spirit Link
3 Gerat Ball
4 Dimension Valley (For Stadium wars)
1 Sacred Ash
3 Mega Turbo (Acceleration)
3 VS Seeker
1 Lysandre
2 Ultra Ball
1 Elesa (For SPirit Link/Rock Guard)
2 Shauna
1 Super Rod
3 Sycamore
4 HTL

Energies-11
4 Mystery Energy
7 Psychic

This is the current deck list. It has been updated in the OP.
 
This is what I would do:

-1 sacred ash or super rod (only need one of them)
-1 Toxicroak-EX (Doesn't work too well with this deck)
-1 Mewtwo-EX
-2 Mystery energy (really only 2 is needed to give your pokemon a low retreat cost)
-1 Pumpkaboo

+1 Judge (more draw support and hand disruption)

If you have the mew for the registeel thing then you need to have Registeel on your bench so also add 2 Registeel and 2 Mew. That leaves one card you can keep.
 
Keep in mind that the Expanded format includes sets from Black and White through BREAKThrough. So, cards like Meowstic and Espurr (still crtical in the deck strategy, IMO) can still be used. You may want to incorporate other "older" cards like Colress and N too. I'd suggest you review the cards from all these sets and select the "best" card from these sets for your deck.

Also, keep in mind that former dominant decks like Blastoise-Keldeo, Seismitoad-variants, RayEels, MewtwoEels, Yveltal-Darkrai, Big Basics with Garbodor, etc. will re-emerge. Playtesting against these particular decks will help you prepare for the tournament.

MVP ("Most Valuable Pokemon") Pokemon like X-Ball Mewtwo EX will again be in the midst of lots of decks (as techs even); so, the Mewtwo EX "wars" will rage again. This Mewtwo EX can easily 1HKO your M Gallade EX and Gallade EX; so, be wary.
 
I was thinking of using Chandelure Ex, as it works very well with htl, so do you think i should replace it with gengar?
 
amiibo_hunter said:
I was thinking of using Chandelure Ex, as it works very well with htl, so do you think i should replace it with gengar?
Click to expand...
Both Chandelure EX and Gengar EX have the same HP, Weakness, Retreat Cost, and have a 1st attack whose energy cost is either a single P or C energy, respectively. Note that Gengar EX's can attack with no energy when there is a Dimension Valley in play. Gengar EX also has F Resistance; whereas Chandelure EX has no Resistance.

Also, Chandelure EX's 1st attack drops 4 damage counters "any way you like" vs. Gengar EX's 1st attack which drops only 3 onto a single opponent's Pokemon. I find Curse Drop a bit more useful to prepare for the subsequent spread damage by M Gallade EX or just to 1HKO pesky Joltics.

Their 2nd attacks vary too; but I'd give Gengar EX a slight advantage in this case since it can poison the Defending Pokemon and then bounce back to the bench. Should an opponent want to KO the Gengar EX, he/she would need to expend additional resources to do so.

Interestingly enough though, I prefer Chandelure EX over Gengar EX primarily due to Chandelure EX's 1st attack. Again, I use HtLs primarily with Gourgeist, not Chandelure EX.
 
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