Discussion What is the best way to play Steam Siege's Mega Gardevoir EX?

[TCG_Destory]

Spoiler

After getting enough fun and wins (and losses) with Mega Gardevoir EX from Primal Clash, I went and looked at my collection for what I could build next. Looking back at my deck, I instantly thought of what to build next.

I made a Mega Gardevoir EX deck around Steam Siege's version of this Pokémon. I considered ways of playing it, and different cards to insert into the very flexible deck it seems to be.

For now, I prefer to play it inside of a fast build with a two shot based strategy with healing. After a few changes, my Despair Ray deck looks as follows:

Pokémon - 12
2 Hoopa EX AOR
4 Gardevoir EX PCL
3 M Gardevoir EX STS
3 Shaymin EX ROS

Trainer - 39
3 Fairy Garden
1 Brock's Grit
2 Hex Maniac
2 Lysandre
2 N
4 Professor Sycamore
2 Skyla
4 Fairy Drop
4 Gardevoir Spirit Link
3 Mega Turbo
4 Trainer's Mail
4 Ultra Ball
4 VS Seeker

Energy - 9
9 Fairy Energy

Let me know if you think I should add/cut certain cards and how you build or would build it.
Any suggestion will be considerated.

Anyway, the goal of my deck is to deal two shot Knock Outs to my opponent's Pokémon by dealing 110+ damage every turn, most of the time starting on turn two, and make it extremely hard for the vast majority of my opponent's Pokémon to take prizes, thanks to Despair Ray's capabilities to discard any stalling targets and easy prizes. In addition, healing cards, the Fairy Drops that is, make Mega Gardevoir potentially hard to Knock Out in two hits. Fairy Garden allows to easily retreat between Mega Gardevoir once the Active one is highly damaged and Despair Ray even allows for more prize denial in that it can, as a last resort, discard heavily damaged Mega Gardevoir on the Bench. Due to the two Energy cost and the presence of Mega Turbo, it is extremely easy to power this attacker up and any Energy scaler (especially Mega Mewtwo) will be given a hard time (same thing for Bench scalers since my Bench can be cleared easily). Speaking of which, Mega Gardevoir benefits from two types, which lets it hit most Psychic types Pokémon (Mewtwo, Alakazam, Hoopa) for Weakness as well as one shot every Dragon type Pokémon, such as Latios, Giratina (with Hex Maniac), Salamence and Rayquaza. The presence of two Hex Maniac allows for Ability Disruption, sometimes even on turn one, and potentially on many turns, which is very painful to decks like Volcanion EX and Greninja BREAK.

What is your favorite way of playing Mega Gardevoir EX, the Steam Siege version? Do you think it is a good deck at the moment? What techs do you like using? Let me know, I honestly think this deck is better than what it is often seen as being. I would like to know if it is good against most of the meta.

 

[TheGuardian118]

I've seen this deck with the new Dragonite EX to pull up discarded Pokémon to play again. other ability ones I've seen are the new Rattata to discard the active's tools, and possibly even the Hawlucha that acts as a free Lysandre. Geomancy Xerneas also sometimes gets used to help power up and to have a non-EX attacker in some builds, otherwise you'll want Pokémon Ranger as a 1-of in case you face someone that can't be hurt by EX guys like Regeice. Obviously, the more basics you run the less likely you'll get that perfect starting Pokémon, but with free retreat with Fairy Garden that may not be an issue. Skyfield can help set up OHKO if you can manage a full bench, but in some builds Fairy Garden is much better.

 

[Anthony Orosco]

-1 Lysandre and +1 Dragonite EVO.

Since you are openly trying to 2 shot starting turn 1, Lysandre will only be useful for things like Shaymin or low HP Basics on the Bench like Froakie. The Dragonite, much like TheGuardian118 said, can be used as a Super Rod that can be Ultra Balled for. Besides that, this list is very strong. It is a straight forward build that is very versatile, and capable of taking prizes while also denying them. I hope you have fun with it!

 

[TCG_Destory]

I haven't Dragonite EX at the moment (haven't invested in that card yet) but it is of course a card I consider throwing in for Pokémon retrieval. For now, I run two Super Rod (a change from the previous build that had Brock's Grit in it) and it works well enough because I can use my Super Rod and then use an Ultra Ball for a Hoopa EX to get all of these Pokémon out once again. A thing I have realized when testing is that due to the minimal amount of elements I need to get the turn two Despair Ray going, as well as the presence of multiple Hoopa EX, Shaymin EX and two Skyla, I often happen not to even need to use Professor Sycamore or N on the first turn. Therefore, I added an extra copy of Hex Maniac in order to use the Supporter for the turn to slow down my opponent, possibly for their first turn, as often as I can afford to (when I have no need to use another Supporter). I also put some more disruption in my deck, in the form of Enhanced Hammer, to slow down agressive decks that often depend on Special Energy. To make room for the aforementioned cards, I removed my Fairy Drops, due to the fact that I can give my Pokémon free retreat and that a possible late game play for me is to discard a heavily damaged Mega Gardevoir EX with Despair Ray and then mega evolve another Gardevoir EX the following turn by playing Super Rod and then Ultra Ball. Lastly, as for the Lysandre count, I kept it at two. The reason for that is the following: decks of the current meta often use Shaymin EX and Hoopa EX. Mega Gardevoir EX can beat them down in one hit, due to the first one having exactly 110 HP and the other one being weak to attacks from Psychic type Pokémon.

So, after those few changes, my deck list is now the following:

Pokémon - 12
2 Hoopa EX AOR
4 Gardevoir EX PCL
3 M Gardevoir EX STS
3 Shaymin EX ROS

Trainer - 39
3 Fairy Garden
3 Hex Maniac
2 Lysandre
3 N
3 Professor Sycamore
2 Skyla
2 Enhanced Hammer
4 Gardevoir Spirit Link
3 Mega Turbo
2 Super Rod
4 Trainer's Mail
4 Ultra Ball
4 VS Seeker

Energy - 9
9 Fairy Energy

Note: If I happen to dislike having three Hex Maniac, I will consider putting in an Escape Rope or a Pokémon Ranger instead (maybe even a Max Potion).