Granbull archetype (TCG)

Granbull
Granbull and Oranguru Types used Major cards Granbull, Oranguru and Magcargo Era 2018-2020

Granbull was a Pokémon Trading Card Game deck archetype played in the 2018-2019 and slightly in the 2019-2020 seasons. The deck aimed to have no cards in the player's hand to deal a powerful one-Energy attack. Granbull has been featured at Top 2 in LAIC 2018, as well other relevant spots at Regional events.

Strategy

Granbull was a Stage 1 Pokémon that could, for one Energy card, attack for 160 damage if the player had no cards in their hand. The deck then focused on playing the titular Pokémon as the only attacker (mainly as no other powerful Pokémon fitted the strategy and deck consistency) by having a board state to come up with more Granbull in the next turns and using cards that emptied the player's hand, even if said cards had no practical effect in the list such as Fiery Flint or if the player purposelly failed to get cards from the deck with their effect.

Deck consistency and card sequencing were important to get around the game's limitations such as playing only one Energy or Stadium card from the hand per turn, so Oranguru and Magcargo were supporting Pokémon to draw cards (which the player would likely need in the next turns) and manipulate the cards they would get from the deck.

Key cards

Magcargo

• Granbull - For one Energy card, Granbull's All Out attack dealt 30 damage plus 130 if the player had no cards in their hand, enough to deal against some Pokémon such as Dedenne-GX in one attack with no other modifiers. Its second attack required three energies and so would be generally avoided. Granbull notably had a resistance to Zoroark-GX's type and the 130HP let it survive a few other attacks from Pokémon in the metagame.
• Oranguru - Once per turn, allowed the player to draw cards until they had 3 in their hand. While being the main or only drawing support Pokémon in the deck, this hit the right ammount of resources for some cards such as emptying the hand with Ultra Ball or to just recover from turns when the player had no cards from the hand.
• Magcargo - Stage 1 Pokémon that, once per turn, let the player put any card from the deck into the top of it. Played either before Oranguru's Ability to draw the right cards from it or before attacking to better guarantee a card in the next turn.
• Ditto ♢ - Was able to evolve into either Granbull or Magcargo with its Ability.
• Choice Band - Increased damage against Pokémon-GX by 30.
• Shrine of Punishment - Put a damage counter on all Pokémon-GX between turns, easing the needed ammount of damage to knock them out and improving the Prize card trade during the game.
• Diantha - Played only if a Pokémon was knocked out in the opponent's last turn to put 2 cards from the discard pile into the player's hand. The retrieved cards were usually from a knocked out Granbull to setup following ones.

Typical decklist

Nicolas Galaz's decklist at the 2018 Latin America Internationals

Quantity	Card	Type	Rarity
4×	Granbull
4×	Snubbull
2×	Magcargo
2×	Slugma
1×	Zebstrika
1×	Blitzle
1×	Ditto ♢
2×	Oranguru
1×	Field Blower	I
1×	Fiery Flint	I
4×	Great Ball	I
2×	Mysterious Treasure	I
4×	Nest Ball	I
1×	Pal Pad	I
1×	Pokémon Catcher	I
2×	Rescue Stretcher	I
1×	Switch	I
4×	Ultra Ball	I
3×	Choice Band	I
3×	Shrine of Punishment	St
4×	Apricorn Maker	Su
3×	Diantha	Su
2×	Guzma	Su
1×	Tate & Liza	Su

Possible tech cards

Zebstrika

The following cards are often used in Granbull in place of certain cards included in the above lists.

• Zebstrika - Supporting Pokémon to draw cards that benefited from the deck playing Ditto ♢.
• Fairy Charm Ability - Prevented damage to the Pokémon it was attached to from Pokémon with Abilities. Fairy Charm L could also protect damage against some popular Pokémon in the metagame. It was usually prefered to use Choice Band as removing Tool cards from opposing Pokémon was common at the time.
• Wondrous Labyrinth ♢ - Increased the attack costs of non- Pokémon.
• Apricorn Maker - Searched the deck for three Item cards with "Ball" on their name, Granbull being one of the few decks where this card was consistent to be used.

Reasons for the loss of playability

The following expansions released TAG TEAM which, despite giving the player three Prize cards when knocked out, featured more HP and were Basic Pokémon. Pikachu & Zekrom-GX was notable as it could knock out two Pokémon in one attack and disrupt the player's pace. The metagame also saw the increase of damage reduction and healing cards, making it harder for the deck to exchange Prize cards more effectively, besides control decks. Granbull also suffered later from the end of support at the Scarlet & Violet era, and the new Pokémon V raised the average HP of two-prize Pokémon while making its cards that dealt exclusively against Pokémon-GX less useful. Finally, Choice Band and Oranguru had also left the 2019-20 Standard format over less reliable cards.

This article is part of Project TCG, a Bulbapedia project that aims to report on every aspect of the Pokémon Trading Card Game.