The year of 2011 is one of the craziest and most turbulent in Pokemon’s competitive history. After a historic move before the 2010 season, where TPCI announced there would NOT be a rotation, the beginning of 2011 marked the rotation of the very first Diamond and Pearl expansions – and later in the year, two weeks before US Nationals, there would end up being an emergency rotation that caused the entire Diamond and Pearl block to be rotated out prematurely. Before the release of Black and White, the format (consisting of sets Majestic Dawn through Call of Legends), while balanced, was centralized mostly by two different concepts: SP Pokemon, and Item Lock. Gyarados was one of the few real contenders that didn’t fall into either of these categories (the other big ones being Regigigas, and Machamp). It lost some of the most crucial cards in decklists during the rotation – but some of the cards in the newest set – HGSS Triumphant – would breathe new life into an archetype that would have otherwise been considered to be on its last legs.
Contents
- Cards Lost in Rotation
- The Replacements
- The Two Different Archetypes
- Skeleton List
- What the Tech?
- Conclusion
Cards Lost in Rotation
The biggest hit from these cards is obviously Felicity’s Drawing – the entire POINT of the deck was to discard Magikarps early by using Sableye’s Impersonate, allowing you to start swinging for 90 as early as turn 3. Not only did Felicity’s make it easy to max your damage output, it also allowed you to accumulate a TON of cards in your hand early, practically forcing your opponents to spend Judges to try and disrupt your set up. Sableye could stil abuse Pokemon Collector to grab all of your Magikarps, but getting them into the discard pile was not easy, especially before HGSS Triumphant released in November.
In addition to losing its main setup engine, Azelf Mysterious Treasures was also forced out with the rotation. Downer Material was one of Gyarados’s biggest tools in SP matchups, and was especially crucial against LuxChomp. Forcing them to pay extra energy to attack made it easier to get Gyarados up and running without disruption. Unown G was lost as well, although this was somewhat minor to this deck. It was annoying that you could no longer protect your benched pokemon from Gengar’s Shadow Room attack, but if you could limit your bench space and successfully play around Fainting Spell, this wasn’t too much of an issue.
The Replacements
Junk Arm was a phenomenal replacement for Felicity’s Drawing – it discarded two cards from your hand, making it easy to pitch your Magikarps, and it also allowed you to re-use several strong Item cards, such as Expert Belt, Pokemon Rescue, or PokeTurn. Sage’s Training could occasionally be used to discard your Magikarps as well, but it was less reliable to do so. More often than not, this would pitch items instead, which was important. – Junk Arm cannot be used if there are no items in your discard pile when you play it, even if you plan on discarding an item card.
Seeker was also INCREDIBLE in this deck – once your Gyarados was finally set up, it allowed you to heal them efficiently and easily, making it much easier to stabilize against aggressive opponents. Seeker also allowed you to re-use a plethora of good Poke-Powers, such as Uxie’s Set Up, or Mesprit’s Psychic Bind. You no longer had to rely on flipping heads with Super Scoop Up.
The Two Different Archetypes, and their Tournament Results
| Pokemon | Trainers | Energy |
|---|---|---|
| 3 Gyarados 4 Magikarp 4 Sableye 1 Luxray GL Lv. X 1 Luxray GL 1 Uxie Lv. X 2 Uxie 1 Azelf 1 Mesprit 2 Unown Q 1 Crobat G 1 Combee 1 Smeargle 1 Regice | 4 Pokemon Collector 4 Looker’s Investigation 3 Seeker 2 Bebe’s Search 4 PokeTurn 3 Pokemon Rescue 2 Expert Belt 1 Luxury Ball 3 Broken Time-Space 4 Junk Arm | 4 Warp Energy 2 Rescue Energy |
Gyarados/Luxray
“Regular” Gyarados, for lack of a better term, was the more consistent of the two main Gyarados archetypes. In the United States, this was the highly favored Gyarados variant. While it was certainly unfavorable to LuxChomp, the matchup was still winnable. Getting enough Magikarps in the discard pile early, alongside repeated use of Mesprit’s Psychic Bind meant you could potentially start swinging for 110 a turn, while keeping Luxray on the back foot. This was especially true if LuxChomp players in your area were dropping to 2-1 or 2-2 Luxray as opposed to a 3-1 – running them out of Luxrays and keeping their energy off the field was not impossible. That being said, a well-timed Expert Belt alongside a Lucario GL practically made it impossible for Gyarados to come back, and the matchup was not favorable. Other matchups in the field were generally pretty close – Gengar could go either way, depending on how well you were able to play around Fainting Spell, and how many heads they flipped. DialgaChomp could also go either way – depending on how quickly you started putting out damage, and how consistently they could heal while keeping you locked out of items.
Surprisingly to a few players, Machamp was also a much closer matchup than it used to be. The release of Machamp Prime gave the Machamp deck a much-needed tank that could also cleanly 2HKO Gyarados with little to no effort. The Prime’s Poke-Power also allowed machamps to switch in, and then play Seeker to shrug off all of their damage, while they too abused Broken Time-Space to play everything back down right away. Some of them also started playing Vileplume, which locked Gyarados out of Junk Arm and Pokemon Rescue. Depending on the list, this matchup could actually end up being unfavorable for the Gyarados player.
This version of Gyarados ended up placing 2nd at Italian, French, and Polish National Championships, as well as taking several more top 8 finishes. This version was much more heavily favored in the United States, however tournament results are not as well-documented. U.S. Nationals and Worlds have full results on multiple sites, but these tournaments were played in a different format due to the emergency rotation. U.S. Regionals aren’t as well documented – only 1st and 2nd place finishes are easily findable, and many of these placements were LuxChomp, due to the sheer volume of players using this deck. We do not know how many Top 8 or Top 4 finishes Gyarados might have in U.S. tournaments.
| Pokemon | Trainers | Energy |
|---|---|---|
| 3 Gyarados 4 Magikarp 2 Mew Prime 2 Crobat G 2 Uxie 4 Smeargle 1 Unown Q 1 Azelf 1 Mesprit 1 Toxicroak G 1 Combee 1 Regice 1 Sableye | 4 Pokemon Collector 3 Seeker 2 Cyrus’s Conspiracy 1 Sage’s Training 1 Looker’s Investigation 1 Bebe’s Search 2 Pokemon Rescue 2 Warp Point 3 Broken Time-Space 2 Expert Belt 1 Luxury Ball 1 VS Seeker 2 PokeTurn 1 Energy Gain 4 Junk Arm | 2 Warp Energy 2 Rescue Energy 2 Psychci Energy |
MewDos
As mentioned above, the regular Gyarados was heavily preferred in the United States. Only two players I could find did well with MewDos at a high level event – John and Stephen Silvestro getting 2nd and Top 4 at Florida Regionals. European nationals results, however, indicate that their field was much more evenly split between these two archetypes. The list above was the only Gyarados deck that managed to make top 8 in the European Challenge Cup, a unique event that drew attendence of 400+ players at times from all around Europe. MewDos also placed 1st at Austrian and Swedish Nationals, as well as top 4 in German Nationals.
Mew/Gyarados traded off a little bit of consistency from the regular Gyarados list – you had to commit at least 2 extra spots for the Mew Primes, cut some of the energy out for Psychic Energy, and usually spent an extra turn in setup mode, in order to use See Off to get a Gyarados in the Lost Zone. However, the payoff was definitely noteworthy – Mew Prime was a much stronger attacker against the mirror, Machamp, and all SP decks that weren’t running Dialga G Lv. X. Because you weren’t attacking with a Gyarados, you could keep all 4 Magikarps in your discard pile, and stream attacks of 120 (before modifiers), which was enough to consistently OHKO Luxray GL, Garchomp C, and Machamp (as well as opposing Gyarados with one single Flash Bite). As a result these matchups, particularly Machamp and LuxChomp, were a couple points more in your favor than they would be with a regular Gyarados list – and this was perfect in a format where many people at the time thought LuxChomp was an S-tier deck.
MewDos saw less play in the States, in my opinion because players frowned upon its lowered consistency. Consistency was already important in this format since Item lock and Poke-Power denial were so prevalent. However, SP Decks were already being played a huge amount coming into the season, and they lost almost nothing at the rotation. It was much easier for players to just continue playing decks they already new how to use than it was for them to develop a completely new archetype. It wouldn’t surprise me if lists from this time period were pretty sub optimal, since most players fought hard to optimize their SP lists.
Skeleton List
| Pokemon | Trainers | Energy |
|---|---|---|
| 3 Gyarados 4 Magikarp 4 Sableye/Smeargle 1 Sableye/Smeargle 1 Crobat G 2 Uxie 1 Mesprit 1 Azelf 1 Combee 1 Unown Q 1 Regice | 4 Pokemon Collector 3 Seeker 1 Bebe’s Search 1 Looker’s Investigation 4 Junk Arm 2 PokeTurn 2 Pokemon Rescue 2 Expert Belt 1 Luxury Ball 3 Broken Time-Space | 2 Warp Energy 2 Rescue Energy |
This leaves you 13 total spots to puts around with, and while the above packages restrict this a little bit, they are also not all-encompassing of what is possible to put in here. It is possible to drop cards of the above lists to make room for other ideas (which will be expanded on a little bit below).
What the Tech?
The Luxray “package” is the first and most popular tech in Gyarados lists – this package of cards was popular throughout 2010 and 2011, and can honestly be edited into 2009 Gyarados lists looking back. If you decide to go the Luxray route, you will need some extra copies of Poke Turn in your list – not only do they allow you to re-use Luxray, but Crobat G as well, making it easier to take OHKOs and 2HKOs on your opponent’s field.
Mew Prime is the 2nd route that Gyarados decks went most often. These decks will also need to include Psychic Energy, in order to allow Mew to use See Off. Without this, you have no ways to put Gyarados into the Lost Zone. Because Roseanne’s Research had rotated before the 2011 season, a lot of decks needed to rely on other ways to grab basic energy out of their deck. SP Decks had Cyrus’s Conspiracy, but it ended up slotting nicely into Gyarados as well because it could also grab Poke Turn. Because of Cyrus’s Conspiracy and the Psychic attack cost, slotting Toxicroak G Promo into Mew Prime versions is very easy to do, but Toxicroak G could function as a standalone tech in regular Gyarados lists as well.
Blissey Prime was an extremely popular tech in my area, although it didn’t necessarily see a lot of play at high level events. Blissey was a little incosnsistent with Gyarados – because removing the damage counters also discarded the energy attached, you didn’t want to use it on a Gyarados that had a Rescue Energy. In addition, Blissey could be Power Sprayed, completely negating your attempt to heal.
That being said, the payoff of not requiring Seeker to heal your Gyarados was at times pretty real. You could use your seeker instead to re-use other useful abilities, like Psychic Bind or Flash Bite. Blissey was also searchable with supporters like Bebe’s Search, which definitely helped against decks relying on item lock (VileGar and Spiritomb were huge in this metagame).
One of the biggest ways to shut down Gyarados in this format was by locking up items, taking away its access to Junk Arm, Pokemon Rescue, and Poke Turn. Both of the biggest ways to lock item cards in this format (Vileplume and Spiritomb) did so through use of Poke-Bodies. Because most, if not all Gyarados lists in this year played Warp Energy, setting up Dialga G Lv. X was not as difficult as one might expect. If you played Cyrus’s Conspiracy, you could also theoretically play Metal Energy to use Deafen, but most of the time this was just in here for the poke-body.
This tech card actually earned Jakob A. from Denmark a 1st place finish at the European Challenge Cup in the Seniors division, where he played against VileGar in the finals. In addition to item lock, Dialga G hoses up a couple of other random poke-bodies, such as Mew Prime in MewDos (which was otherwise a tough matchup), and Abomasnow in Regigigas builds.
One of the few players in the states who believed enough in MewDos to play it at events was somebody at my local league named Yoshi Tate. He’s got a history of creating some pretty unique rogue decks, and always has an interesting spin on things. In this case, he added Absol Prime into his MewDos deck, which was a pretty cool inclusion. It allows you to put Gyarados into the Lost Zone without giving up a turn of offensive pressure, potentially taking a few free prize cards against slower decks relying on Spiritomb. Absol’s Dark typing also gave him an extra attacker in the Gengar matchup, threatening to OHKO. Absol’s Poke-Body also spread damage around the opponent’s field when they tried to set up, softening things up for KOs later. The dark energy cost also worked well with Sableye, potentially giving him an easy out to victory by donking his opponent.
Ditto was an absolute behemoth in the mirror match. Dropping it out of nowhere allowed you to swing for 120 damage consistently, making it easy to take OHKOs with Crobat G and Expert Belt. In response, the opponents also couldn’t really KO it because they would need to get a Magikarp out of their discard pile to attack again, and they’d only be hitting for 90. It was essentially a free 2-for-1 prize exchange, and was re-usable with Pokemon Rescue and Combee.
Bonus points for this tech if you are also running a list that plays Psychic Energy – this turns Ditto into a legitimate threat against VileGar decks, as you could Shadow Room them relentlessly given that Unown G had rotated.
Yanmega Prime was another cool potential inclusion in Gyarados decks that saw more play in Europe than it did here in the states. With its poke-body, Yanmega also didn’t need any energy to attack, so it was pretty easy to swap between the two attackers. Linear Attack set up KOs pretty nicely for Gyarados, and it was especially useful against VileGar decks, as you only needed one Flash Bite to take early KOs on Oddish. Yanmega was another pokemon with Fighting resistance for the Machamp matchup.
Broken Time-Space made it pretty easy to stream Yanmegas as attackers in matchups where this might be favorable, and you could include cards like Copycat or Judge to make meeting the poke-body requirements pretty easy. Samuel J made top 4 at the Switzerland National Championships using Yanmega as his tech of choice.
Hand Disruption was pretty nice to have in Gyarados – Once you had your field set up, you didn’t really need much more than a Pokemon Rescue to keep the pressure on, so taking away your opponent’s resources could be pretty crucial. Judge was a fairly common card in this format, and it was pretty easy to slot in over the Looker’s Investigation. Exeggutor was a more unorthodox pokemon to use, but it actually synergizes pretty nicely with the deck. Because you can often dump your hand size down very small by using Regice and Junk Arms, Exeggutor had the potential to leave your opponent with as little as 1 or 2 cards in their hand at a time. Cedric Gouin from France used Exeggutor to top 8 French Nationals, and top 32 at the European Challenge Cup.
Cyclone Energy was seen more commonly in 2010 – it was a neat extra way to force the opponent to switch. However, because of Seeker, Smeargle, and potentially Dialga G Lv. X, Gyarados generally wanted more aggressive counts of Warp Energy in this format than they did before, and you also had to account for Rescue Energy, and potentially Psychic/Dark Energy.
That being said, Cyclone is still nifty in a handful of situations, especially at the beginning of a game where you can force your opponent to switch out their Spiritomb, potentially unlocking your hand of item cards.
Conclusion
2011 Gyarados is one of the most fun archetypes for me to play from this year. I played it a lot myself back in this format, and looking back on it now, there are so many interesting decisions that this deck has to make during a game. You have to be able to manage your resources well with a deck that runs many things that require you to discard potential tools from your hand, and you also have to set yourself up well to “take a turn off” per se, when you play Seeker. I also think a wide variety of tech options went pretty unnoticed when this deck was still standard-legal, so I’m very interested to see where people decide to take this deck in more modern builds moving forward. Thank you so much for reading; I’ll catch everybody at the next article!
PTCG Retro Library 