Toxicroak EX

Z

Zid

Aspiring Trainer
Member
Howdy,

Anyone been having luck using this guy competitively? I tried a solo poison deck which struggled horribly, and often lost especially to meta decks; poison was just super unreliable and people seem to be running more switches and scrappers to combat Garbodor lately. I then tried a Yveltal EX/Toxic EX deck... Yveltal seems to be pulling all the weight, Toxic rarely gets a single hit before needing to be benched.

Is there any hope for this little guy?
 
Zid said:
Howdy,

Anyone been having luck using this guy competitively? I tried a solo poison deck which struggled horribly, and often lost especially to meta decks; poison was just super unreliable and people seem to be running more switches and scrappers to combat Garbodor lately. I then tried a Yveltal EX/Toxic EX deck... Yveltal seems to be pulling all the weight, Toxic rarely gets a single hit before needing to be benched.

Is there any hope for this little guy?
Click to expand...
Since damage from poison is an effect and not "damage from attack" it could hit pyroar, sigilyph and suicune. You can play it in big basics, yveltal, or any deck that already play laserbank and DCE.
 
I did notice that, which is nice about him. I plugged 2 into my Yveltal/Garbodor/Darkrai/Raichu deck and they did OK, they plugged around 100 damage onto some Kyurems and retreated for free to allow Yveltal to pick up kills. I think they have potential, but I'm just not sold quite yet.
 
energyfullart(? said:
Zid said:
Howdy,

Anyone been having luck using this guy competitively? I tried a solo poison deck which struggled horribly, and often lost especially to meta decks; poison was just super unreliable and people seem to be running more switches and scrappers to combat Garbodor lately. I then tried a Yveltal EX/Toxic EX deck... Yveltal seems to be pulling all the weight, Toxic rarely gets a single hit before needing to be benched.

Is there any hope for this little guy?
Click to expand...

Since damage from poison is an effect and not "damage from attack" it could hit pyroar, sigilyph and suicune. You can play it in big basics, yveltal, or any deck that already play laserbank and DCE.
Click to expand...

It doesn't bypass Safeguard. Safeguard says "ignore ALL effects of attacks, including damage". In the other hand, it does go around Intimidating Mane, because it only blocks damage.
 
Garbrador and Toxicroak EX should be an obvious and effective combination. I might combo with Mewtwo for a Psy-theme and add some Giratinas & Hypno lasers to deal with Suicunes.

Would also Combo nicely with Darkrai/Yveltal as stated above.

As for dealing with Pyroar since you need a stage 2 - one of my favs since he came out is Skuntank (DE) for the auto poison (since this deck will be running Virbank anyway) and coin flip for a possible miss. And his second attack with MB & Hypno Laser is a OHKO on Pyroar. I think Zoraoark (LT) would also do well.

EDIT: Garbador takes Pyroar's ability AND Suicune's ability out anyway... Head slap.
 
I can only imagine Toxicroak being at all useable if combined with both Virbank City Gym and Dragalge. Hitting for 50 damage using an Ex using 2 energy is pretty terrible. But the fact that it doesnt do actual damage makes it worse, because you cant boost it by any conventional means. Though going through Pyroar is pretty nice. It still takes 3 between to knock it out is not ideal.
 
The math with Toxicroak is pretty sweet:

30+30+80+30 = 170

As Ivy_Profen has alluded to though, it is a pretty underwhelming card...
 
I tried him again... and still stunk. I faced Virgen (lol) and got crushed utterly, then I faced a Plasmaklang deck and had issues between switched and high HP. Only think that salvaged game 2 was gourgeist... once that guy gets going, hes unstoppable!
 
Hey, while viewing the XY & FLF sets, I just came up with what I believe to be a good strategy for Toxicroak EX. It revolves around his first attack, Triple Poison, the ability of Dragalge, Hypnotoxic Laser, and Virbank City Gym. So to start, Dragale's ability, if you're not familiar with it, allows you to trap your opponents active Pokemon as long as it is poisoned. This can be achieved through a quick Laser, or Toxicroak's first attack - Toxicroak's attack is the preferred option because it stacks more damage with Virbank City gym than the Lasers will. Since you made this thread I assume you're familiar with Toxicroak's first attack and that poisons your opponents active and causes that pokemon to receive three damage counters as poison damage in between turns instead of the usual one. Along with Virbank Gym, this stacks up to a solid fifty damage in between turns! Dragalge supports this with his ability, trapping the active and leads to quick knock outs (3 turns on average). Now this deck has some obvious counters that can effectively remove the poison condition, thus rendering this deck useless. These counter include (but are not limited to, as I might forget some) :

  • Switch
    Pokemon Center Lady
    Audino BCR
    Slurpuff XY
    Virizion EX PLB
Again, I might have forgot some, but those were just the main ones I could think of. This is the best option I see for Toxicroak EX, as his second attack is somewhat awkward, requiring 2 psychic and one colorless energy, while his first attack requires only two colorless energy which can easily be provided with a DCE. It wouldn't hurt to scan through previous sets to see if there aren't any other card that could potentially support this deck.
 
A deck you may want to try is Toxicroak/Pyroar/Dragalge.

This deck can focus around using poison on decks that are not immune to it. Pyroar can be used to go after the Virizion Ex and sit in the active after Toxicroak poisons stuff. The deck will run fire and DCE for energy. Keldeo Ex or just float stones are also in consideration to switch around and stuff.

But once again Toxicroak is just not super great and this deck could run just Pyroar and Laser Bank.
 
Playtesting my toxicroak deck online and I win a lot. I have 3 Toxicroak, 2 Dragalge, and 2 Mew EX. I run lysanders to choose who to bring out and poison lock. Mew EX counters Mewtwo EX, and allows me to use the attacks of my toxicroak without sacraficing my Toxicroak. Unfortunately the 120 HP is a bit too low so I use big cloaks. With prism energies, it also allows me to use yveltals attacks, amd give me many many more options when attacking.

Online I usually win even against meta decks.
 
I've been trying one copy of Toxicroak in Yveltal/Darkrai and it's pretty fun! Toxicroak hasn't won me any matches by himself but the free retreat for a darkness energy with Darkrai in play is nice, it makes for a nice hit and run combo with triple poison. If my opponent benches their poisoned active at least Toxicroak bought me some time to set up my main attackers.

I think he's pretty decent and at the very least forces your opponent to reconsider his/her strategy (regular poison can add up quickly, let alone 30)!
 
I tried Toxicroak, but he is honestly underwhelming. If you want to play a poison deck, play Crobat!

Crobat hits for 40, with 40 poison damage between turns. With muscle band, and Virbank, you're doing...

40 Base + 20 Muscle Band + 40 Poison + 20 Virbank. That's 120 damage, for PCC. Going into your turn, that Pokemon has taken 180 damage, if you have Dragalge out to keep it active, which is a knock out on anything that isn't a Mega or under Verdant Wind.
 
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