kwisdumb said:
Anything that can...
- Outspeed it
- Lock trainers
- Disrupt hands
Only the first one of these is reliable against Gyarados. Trainer locking usually does nothing unless you have already killed a Gyarados and they haven't gotten a Combee in hand or a Collector/etc to get it.
Disruption doesn't work either unless you get it on like the first turn, after that I have probably used Felicity's already and gotten 2 Magikarp in the discard. At that point I really don't care how many cards are in my hand, I've got most of my setup done. And unless your disruption is Looker's, you also have to shuffle your own hand which could mess you up just as much. Unless you have a Claydol out I guess
Honchkrow I still say is useless against pretty much everything besides Gyarados. Ok, it beats Gengar too, but I wouldn't say Gengar is that great of a deck either. It's a big waste of space, especially if you're the above guy also putting a dark energy in the deck too.
Also don't even mention the fact that Magikarp is "30 HP snipe bait". I really hope you're not seriously planning to put my Magikarp back in the discard pile after you went through so much effort to get it out to lower my Gyarados's damage. You can take that prize, I'll be taking more now that I have the 3rd Magikarp back in the discard.
Also gives you the opportunity then to either stall
I don't know which definition of stall you're talking about but if you mean purposely playing slow to take time off the clock that should not be mentioned as a way to beat anything.
Decks besides Luxchomp that I've seen perform decently against Gyarados are Luxpluff, Cursegar, Dialga/Garchomp, etc. Those are probably the best.
Luxchomp only reliably wins if:
1. I can't get Lucario GL off the field, OR
2. You Bright Look/Dragon Rush for 6 cheap prizes and for whatever reason I can't kill your Luxrays and Garchomps fast enough.
I'm not saying Luxchomp will autolose if it can't get one of those done but overall I'd say the matchup is a little in Gyarados's favor or about even at worst.
Cursegar can be annoying but I personally use Skuntank G, which literally gives me a favorable matchup against any Gengar deck with SF Gengar (most Cursegar use 1). Expert Belt gives AR Gengar a lot of trouble since he can no longer 2HKO me with Shadow Skip without help. Plus Gengar is super slow and I'll probably have gotten at least 1 prize by the time you get your first AR Gengar going.
Jumpluff I agree is good vs Gyarados, and I haven't tested against Dialga/Chomp but I assume Dialga would be annoying because of the Trainer AND Stadium lock, which would stop me from even getting Gyarados out.