Gyarados archetype (TCG)

Gyarados
Gyarados and Sableye Types used Major cards Gyarados, Sableye, and Regice Era 2008-2010

The Gyarados archetype is a popular deck in the Pokémon Trading Card Game. After appearing sometime shortly after the release of Stormfront, the deck gained recognition and was played heavily during the 2009-2010 Pokémon Organized Play season. It placed well in numerous tournaments but saw a decline in use as LuxChomp grew in popularity. Although its merits were frequently discussed, many players moved away from Gyarados as a competitive archetype in favor of decks requiring more finesse, such as Sablelock and the aforementioned LuxChomp. However, after the release of the Triumphant expansion late in 2010, Gyarados was seen as more viable than ever due to the inclusion of Junk Arm in the new set.

Strategy

Although versions including certain tech cards will be more complex, Gyarados has one of the most straightforward strategies of any archetype today. Sableye is the deck's ideal starter, as its Impersonate attack can be used to give the player an additional Supporter card play on the first turn. When used to utilize the effect of Pokémon Collector, Cyrus's Conspiracy, or any other of the deck's numerous searching or drawing Supporter cards, Sableye's Impersonate can give Gyarados a remarkably fast setup. After two or three turns, the deck aims to have one Gyarados on the field with three Magikarp in the discard pile. This allows Gyarados to do maximum damage with its Tail Revenge attack, which does 30 damage for each Magikarp in the player's discard.

To get multiple Magikarp in the discard pile, the deck employs Regice, Junk Arm, and Volkner's Philosophy. Regice's Regi Move Poké-Power forces the opponent to switch out his or her active Basic Pokémon with a benched Pokémon, and makes the Gyarados player discard two cards from his or her hand.

Once the Gyarados player has one Gyarados on the field along with as many Magikarp as possible in the discard pile, the deck's strategy is simply to keep Gyarados alive while taking as many prizes as possible. With Expert Belt, Gyarados's Tail Revenge can do 110 damage, enough to knock out many Pokémon and enough to severely damage all others. Since Tail Revenge has no Energy cost, the deck can afford much more room to situation Trainer and Supporter cards such as Warp Point, Seeker, and Pokémon Rescue. The deck can afford to use multiple Luxury Ball, since Junk Arm's ability to retrieve it allows it to be used again once discarded. Combinations such as Warp Point and Seeker, which effectively allows the player to return a damage Gyarados to his or her hand, along with Pokémon Rescue and Rescue Energy make sure that the Gyarados player can almost always maintain an attacking Pokémon with several Magikarp in the discard pile, allowing for a continous high damage output.

Key Cards

• Gyarados' - Gyarados is the deck's main attacker. Since many builds do not run energy, Gyarados attacks only with Tail Revenge. Tail Revenges damage output is completely dependent on how many Magikarp are in the player's discard pile. With three Magikarp discarded, Tail Revenge does 90 damage for no energy cost. With Gyarados's 130HP, which is far above average for a Stage 1 evolved Pokémon, along with Expert Belt, Gyarados can prove to be a strong, bulky attacker.
• Sableye - Sableye is Gyarados's ideal start. With Impersonate, Sableye can use any Supporter card from the player's deck, allowing Gyarados to set up much faster. Impersonate is often used to grab Pokémon Collector, giving the player access to Regice, Magikarp, Uxie, and a variety of other Basic Pokémon on their second turn.
• Regice - Regice's Poké-Power, Regi Move, allows the Gyarados player to discard two cards from his or her hand to force the opponent to switch out his or her active Basic Pokémon. In addition to allowing easy discard of multiple Magikarp, Regi Move can disrupt decks based around Pokémon SP, as well as those using a Spiritomb Trainer lock.
• Uxie - Uxie is in the deck for simple drawpower. Its Set Up Poké-Power allows the player to draw until they have seven cards in their hand.
• Pokémon Collector - Pokémon Collector is used to search whatever Basic Pokémon the decks needs at a given time out of the deck. It can be used with Sableye's Impersonate and searched with Cyrus's Conspiracy, making it a fairly easy card to access. Early in the game, Pokémon Collector can search for one Regice and two Magikarp, allowing for their immediate discard with Regi Move. It is a very versatile card that is absolutely crucial in modern Gyarados builds.
• Junk Arm - Although many may not consider Junk Arm a key card, as Gyarados thrived even before its release in the Triumphant expansion, it certainly helps the deck.
• Pokémon Rescue -
• Rescue Energy -

Typical decklist

The deck list appearing below is not official; it is meant to represent an average build of the archetype, not specifically constructed for any regional metagame. Being that this is merely an archetype, a player may wish to change any part of this deck when building his or her own version.

Quantity	Card	Type	Rarity
4×	Gyarados
4×	Magikarp
4×	Sableye
1×	Regice
1×	Uxie LV.X
2×	Uxie
1×	Azelf
2×	Crobat G
2×	Unown Q
2×	Bebe's Search	Su
3×	Pokémon Collector	Su
3×	Professor Oak's New Theory	Su
2×	Volkner's Philosophy	Su
1×	Cyrus's Conspiracy	Su
2×	Seeker	Su
1×	Twins	Su
2×	Poké Turn	T
4×	Junk Arm	T
3×	Pokémon Communication	T
2×	Expert Belt	T
2×	Luxury Ball	T
2×	Pokémon Rescue	T
1×	Warp Point	T
3×	Broken Time-Space	St
3×	Rescue Energy	E
2×	Double Colorless Energy	E
1×	Warp Energy	E

Possible Tech Cards

• Dialga G LV.X -
• Poké Blower + -
• Poké Healer + -
• Chatot -
• Water Energy -
• Call Energy -
• Special Darkness Energy -