The Cynthia deck is a deck I'm actually looking forward to a lot, whether or not it becomes a top tier contender in the meta. The only other deck I'm really interested in for the upcoming stuff is something revolving around Dusk Mane Necrozma and/or Solgaleo GX, but that's irrelivent to this thread.
Weakness to not Pyschic on Garchomp is a great thing with Buzzwole being one of the top decks which will help Garchomp avoid being pre-emptively bussed by anything anti-Buzzwole that people will be experimenting with, like Naganadel. Unfortunately Lucario is still vulnerable, but since he isn't the main attacker we take those.
Hitting for 230 with a choice band is a guaranteed OHKO on anything meta relevant at the moment, with or without a fighting fury belt attached to basics like Buzzwole, who will go up to exactly 230 HP even with one attached. Even without a choice band, you're still taking big OHKOs on GX Pokemon like Zoroark GX (without Cynthia too thanks to weakness), Lycanroc GX, Silvally GX (without Cynthia but needs Choice Band thanks to weakness) and even your own weakness, Golisopod GX. And of course the main benefit is that your primary threat is a 1 prize attacker, giving you a lot of longevity with this deck. You will be needing a choice band to take out a Naganadel GX, but since you are a 1 prize deck, the GX attack actually works out in your favor since your opponent will always need to take more KOs than you.
This is my take on a Cynthia deck at the moment.
Pokemon x19
4x Gibbles
4x Gabite
4x Garchomp
3x Riolu
3x Lucario
1x Alolan Vulpix
Supporter x 11
4x Cynthia
2x Sycamore
2x N
2x Guzma
1x Lusamine
Item x15
4x Ultra Ball
3x Rare Candy
2x Choice Band
2x Escape Board
2x Rescue Stretcher
1x Counter Catcher
1x Field Blower
Stadium x4
4x Brooklet Hill
Energy x11
3x DCE
4x Fighting Energy
4x Strong Energy
I think the Garchomp & Lucario ratios are correct, though I would personally push for a 3/3 or even 4/3 Lucario line. Lucario is going to be much easier to KO than Garchomp, and since both Lucario and Garchomp are one prize Pokemon, people will likely go for the lower HP one if the timing is right. 110 HP is a lot easier to exploit, and by denying your search Pokemon you could lose essential consistency at the same time. You never need more than 1 Lucario on the bench at a time due to the once per turn ability, but having more than 1 in play at a time means that you will always have your search. Basically, you want 2 Garchomps and 2 Lucarios in play at all times so that no matter who dies, you have your search. 3/3 also means you'll see them sooner than 2/2.
Call me crazy, but I don't think this deck needs Tapu Lele GX at all, nor Brigette for that matter. Tapu Lele GX gives your opponent a 2 prize target that they can use to their advantage to close out the game when you're at 2 prizes left. Garchomp/Lucario combo can search you ANY card in the deck, so I really see no need to add a 2 prize drop searcher. It also prevents you from opening Lele and feeling really bad.
One Vulpix is in the deck for a few reasons. The first being that Ascension is only for the Garchomp line up, so you want something that can help you see Lucario more often as well. It also means that if you have rare candy in hand, you can Beacon for Garchomp & Lucario and really put the pressure on your opponent to N you or else. In general, Beacon can grab you 2 evolutions while Ascension only grabs you one and requires energy. I don't think more than 1 is needed, but it's a fantastic option for if you brick on energy. It is a water Pokemon as well, so you can Brooklet Hill for it and escape board your active to get it up there, or retreat the normal way.
Brigette can be completely replaced by Brooklet Hill. While not as fast as Brigette, Brooklet Hill has more persistence than Brigette. As a 1 prize deck, you can afford to lose your Pokemon often, Rescue Stretcher them, then Brooklet Hill them back out again and evolve back up. Brigette is great in GX decks because once you lose 3 Pokemon you kind of lost already anyway, so the 4 Pokemon you have in play by the end of Bridgette usually hold you out through most of the game, but since you are going to be hopefully going through 6 full KOs in this deck, you want mid-game longevity and the ability to always keep yourself in the game, which is something Brigette can't do as well as Brooklet Hill. Also, with Glaceon GX coming out around the same time, we are going to potentially see some Lele -> Brigette hate. Focusing on Brooklet Hill allows you to dodge this issue completely. You do lose the ability to Ultra Ball for Lele for Brigette, but again I think the focus here is the long term battle not the short term battle. This also frees you up to play a turn 1 N or turn 1 Sycamore to disrupt your opponent/advance your hand faster. Those draw cards could lead you to you filling up your bench, too.
Outside of the mirror match, I don't really see a problem in allowing your opponent to Brooklet Hill themselves for, say, Buzzwole GXs. As I mentioned before, in a GX deck, you only need 3 GX KOs. Having more Buzzwole's on the bench doesn't really help if they aren't equipped with the energy to do anything anyway. Also, once Octillery rotates in the fall, you won't have to worry about Brooklet Hill giving your opponent draw power. I also want to point out Brooklet Hill in relation to Solgaleo/Lunala Prism Star and their 1 energy attack to recover energy based on the size of your bench. You want to keep your bench small and specific to prevent your opponent from being able to take advantage of you. Brooklet Hill lets you do that while Brigette does not. Lastly, playing Brooklet Hill makes Lusamine a better card than Pal Pad, at least in my opinion. Pal Pad assumes that you have Lucario in play at the time that you use it to search out the Cynthias you restore. Lusamine allows you to regrab Brooklet Hill (field blower may clear them) and Cynthia, or two Cynthias and keep them in your hand to be used next turn. The idea is that even if someone N's your Cynthia while you have no Lucario in play, you recovered a Brooklet Hill from Lusamine to get out a Riolu, then next turn after they N'd you, you evolve up into Lucario and grab Cynthia anyway, so unless you're at a low prize count it's really not a big loss.
I reduced the Field Blower count since Garbotoxin is seeing less play and this deck does not straight up die to Garbotoxin anyway since your damage output is unrelated to abilities. You should already be planning ahead if you are up against a Garbodor deck anyway and make sure you search Cynthias or field blower early. You also don't care about Choice Band since you have no EXs or GXs, so you don't need field blowers to remove that either. You can also win any stadium war with 4x Brooklet Hill and Lusamine. You should only need 1 field blower to deal with your problems.
1 Counter catcher is in there because I expect to get bullied with a deck like this and take an early loss. You can play Counter Catcher + Cynthia in the same turn whereas Guzma cannot. I would love a 2nd counter catcher, but I don't see myself using more than 1 per game.
Strong Energy is absolutely mandatory in this deck. It lets your Garchomps OHKO mirror match Lucarios without Cynthia, and it gives you access to hitting 250 damage with choice band + Cynthia against the beefiest GX Pokemon like Solgaleo GX which might see play. It also helps you OHKO anything with 220 HP with a Cynthia and cannot be removed by a field blower like Choice band can, putting every viable Stage 1 GX in range. I put an emphasis on more energy and less choice bands because you need the energy in the first place to use Ascension, so you absolutely want at least 8 fighting type energy in your deck to make sure you are constantly Ascensioning on turn 1 going 2nd, turn 2 going 1st. Choice Band only ever needs to come out against Gardevoir GX or Solgaleo GX. Reduced the DCE count by 1 since you can search for it when you need it by the time you have Garchomp/Lucario in play, and DCE doesn't help you at all with Ascension so you don't want to open it that often. You can slow attach 3 fighting energy when you take control of the game as well, so you don't need the max 4.
Feedback to my feedback always welcome. This is an unreleased deck after all.
