The Gothic Girl

Hello everyone and welcome back to The Deck Out!

As promised, today I’m writing about Gothitelle, the trainer locking nemesis. Let’s start off with a skeleton list so I can easily introduce you the deck’s skeleton and its main objective – trainer locking.

Pokémon:
4x Gothita(Hypnotic Gaze)
2x Gothorita(Deleting Glare)
3x Gothitelle
3x Solosis
1x Duosion
2x Reuniclus
1x Zekrom
1x Reshiram
1-2 Starter
= 18-19

Trainer:

4x Pokémon Collector
4x Pokémon Communication
4x Rare Candy
4x Twins
2x Max Potion
3x Junk Arm
2x Pokémon Catcher
=23

Energy:

3x Double Colorless Energy
9x Psychic Energy
=12


=53-54 cards


Strategy


I love how this is a skeleton list and still it has so many cards in it. Later on I will make a complete list of this deck but I liked to list the skeleton in the beginning because it’s easier to explain the strategy and key cards if you have already seen the skeleton.  The strategy is simple, get behind prizes (or not) and build the Gothitelle as an active Pokémon to lock your opponent’s trainer. From this point there is 2 options:
1) Go aggressive and start attacking with the first Gothitelle(if this is the case, you don’t need 4 Twins)
2) Just evolve the Gothitelle as your active Pokémon and while buying turns with its Trainer Lock develop a new Gothitelle and Reuniclus. Remember – Gothitelle as an active Pokémon keeps your bench safe from Catcher so you can freely bench almost anything.

After you have the set-up and start attacking with Gothitelle you just move all the damage counters away from it every turn to your benched Pokémon(mostly to Zekrom and Reshiram) and not let your opponent KO your Gothitelle. You use the Max Potions when Zekrom or Reshiram has 120 damage and recycle them with your Junk Arms. After you have 5 Psychic energies attached to Gothitelle, it takes a prize every turn and you just steamrolls through almost any deck. In emergency situations you can also Outrage your way through 2 prizes with Zekrom and Reshiram.

It’s funny how this combo is easy to think of and easy to use but in fact it reminds a lot of Ross Cawthon’s 2^nd placing Worlds deck and when you look at it you can find similarities everywhere. This deck – in fact – is just a more straightforward and an easier to play version of Ross’ deck. And, in my opinion, a lot better. I wonder if Ross had the idea to his deck while thinking of Gothitelle.


Explanation and card choices

There is quite a few things that has to be discussed when thinking of the card choices that has to be made in this deck.

1) Max Potion vs. Blissey Prime

So, once you lay down your Blissey Prime you can heal simultaneously over 400 damage. 1-1 Blissey would be in that moment 4 Max Potions. So mathematically it needs less space. There are few reasons which still lead me to Max Potion over Blissey Prime.
First, I hate 1-1 lines when I don’t have Azelf anymore. If you have either Chansey or Blissey in your prizes, you’re screwed if you don’t draw the right prize at the right moment and don’t have the Alph Litograph in your deck.
Second, the fact that Max Potion is reusable with Junk Arm can’t be overlooked. The more you have different trainers to use with Junk Arm, the better.
Third, while we still have sniping Yanmega Prime in the format, there is no point spreading your damage the way that every Pokémon is in the OHKO-range of Linear Attack. With Max Potions it’s easier to heal Zekrom when it’s needed to heal.

2) Zekrom vs. Reshiram

I don’t know if this really matters but it’s a matter of you like to have every type possible covered or not. If you want to play 2 and 0 of these – I encourage you to go with Reshiram because of Donphan’s Lighting resistance and the fact that Reshiram is a Kingdra Prime counter.

Starters

Here we have a few options. You can use Pichu like Ross and get easily behind prizes. You can use Cleffa like in a normal deck and use it to draw cards as well as get behind prizes. You can also use Smeargle (Portrait) to help you through the set-up if you like aggressive playing.

Energies

The question is, are the DCEs even necessary if you don’t play aggressively? I don’t have a direct answer for that. DCEs can help greatly with retreating Legendary Digimons in the beginning of the game as well they are the easiest way to power-up the Outrage in the late game. I like to go with DCEs because of those reasons and because they come in handy also in mirrors where you get T2 Gothitelle.


The complete deck

So, we have the skeleton but how to build the whole deck and make it tournament-viable? We have to make few adjustments to the skeleton build to make this win tournament matches:

Pokemon:
- 1 Starter(as a starter Cleffa)
+1 Jirachi(CL)
+1 Shaymin(UL)

Trainer:
- 1 Twins
- 1 Pokémon Communication
- 1 Junk Arm
- 1 Rare Candy
+3 Sage’s Training
+2 Juniper
+1 Switch
+1 Copycat
+1 Seeker
+1 Pokegear 3.0.


Cleffa, Jirachi and Shaymin

I decided to go with one Cleffa here because this deck sets-up decently even without Cleffa usually.
Now to Jirachi and Shaymin. If you wonder why these 2 are here, it’s simply because they make Gothitelle much faster to hit harder. You use Jirachi to bring back energies from discard pile and move them to the Gothitelle with Shaymin. These 2 help a lot also when Gothitelle is KOed(which doesn’t happen too often except in the Gothitelle mirrors). If you want to win the mirror you just have to have Jirachi and Shaymin here - it’s your only way to recover when your opponent gets a faster start.

Sage’s Training and Professor Juniper

Discarding drawing is the way to go here. All you need is the basics and 1 Reuniclus and 1 Gothitelle and you have the set-up. You can discard with Sage’s or with Juniper usually 1-1-1 line of both – but only if you’re 100% sure that you will get the set-up fast. That way using hard discing cards like Sage’s and Juniper isn’t a problem.

Switch

2 retreat-cost Pokémon everywhere and Junk Arms, whynaut?


Copycat

You trainer lock your opponent so it’s only natural that their hand size will grow. Copycat is also a great antidecking card. This can be also replaced by a Judge but I like copycat better.


Seeker

Seeker is just so versatile here. You can use Jirachi’s power again if you get too few headses with it or you can return the Jirachi/Shaymin, you have opened with to your hand to get the combo going. It also works as a Max Restore to Zekrom and Reshiram. There simply are no reasons for you not to play this card if you have room for it.

Pokégear 3.0.

 I love this card. In my opinion it’s a staple in almost every deck. It increases your chance to get T1 Collector and helps your way out of Judge when you have it already in the discard pile with Junk Arm. It brings back the memories from the old time when there was Holon Transceiver but sadly it isn’t as good as Transceiver. Sometimes Poke gear whiffs the supporter but it happens so seldom that I think it’s the play anyways.


THE decklist

Pokémon:
4-2-3 Gothitelle(Trick Room)
3-1-2 Reuniclus
1x Zekrom
1x Reshiram
1x Cleffa
1x Jirachi
1x Shaymin
= 20

Trainer:

4x Pokémon Collector
3x Pokémon Communication
3x Rare Candy
3x Twins
2x Professor Juniper
3x Sage’s Training
1x Pokegear 3.0.
1x Copycat
1x Switch
1x Seeker
2x Max Potion
2x Junk Arm
2x Pokémon Catcher
=28

Energy:

3x Double Colorless Energy
9x Psychic Energy
=12



Here is the full, tournament-viable list. In the end I will briefly go through the most popular match-ups.


Favorable:
Stage1 variants
Zekrom

Slightly Favorable:
Reshiram/Typhlosion

Slightly Unfavorable:
Magneboar

Unfavorable:
Magnezone/Yanmega
Mew/Vileplume/Yanmega/Techs


This decks’ match-ups are easy to rate. If they can OHKO your Gothitelle it’s usually unfavorable, but when they can’t, it’s favorable. There is no need to explain how these match-ups go because usually it’s very simple – set-up Gothitelle and Reuniclus and if they can’t OHKO you, you win. If they can, you have to play and think. In every match-up you must have a new Gothitelle on your bench ready because your opponent may surprise KO your Gothitelle in various ways. It also has 130 HP so it’s a good target for the damage counters from your hitting Gothitelle.

The only strange match-up here is Magneboar where you need Catchers to survive. Both, Gothitelle and Magneboar work with Twins but if you manage to get Gothitelle before they can evolve their Emboars/Magnezones with Candy, you’re in a good position. Here your Catchers will come handy as well because you need them to keep thinking all the time where they can lay their energies and where not. Reshiram doesn’t do any good in Magneboar in this match-up so if they keep attacking with Reshiram you’ll most likely win. I like this match-up because it is decided pretty much how players play, not how lucky either one is.


How to counter Gothitelle?

So if you don’t already have a good match-up against Gothitelle is there anything you can do against it? It depends on the deck you’re playing. Here is some solutions for the most popular decks.


Stage1 variants

If you don’t run rainbow energies in your stage1 deck and are afraid of Gothitelle, now is the time to start running Rainbow energies. The only true counter for stage decks against Gothitelle is Mew Prime. And if you run Mew Prime you have to also run Cinccino/Jumpluff so you can guarantee the OHKO. Zororks Foul Play does nothing, Earthquake hits only 120 and if you lost Zone Yanmega, you need the energies for it so those aren’t good options for See Offing. Of course if you want to hit with Mew against Gothitelle, you need at least 2 Mews in your deck because the See Offing one will be OHKOed by Gothitelle if you don’t come See Offing T1-2. Mew is a slow tech against Gothitelle even though it’s a basic Pokémon but nevertheless it’s your best bet against Gothitelle.

Zekrom

Well here’s a though one. Zekrom is once again 10 short of the OHKO on Gothitelle. You need somehow the extra 10 - it’s possible. First we have Kingdra Prime, which could use Spray Splash for the extra 10 but I think it’s a bit too farfetched in a T1 basic deck against trainer lock…The only possible solution, I come up with is Rainbow Energy. It disturbs your Pachirisu but your opponent won’t be waiting for it. If you can get your Opponent attacking your Zekrom the way it has 90-100 damage on you can either attach a Rainbow and Outrage the Gothitelle away(I would like to see the face of Gothitelle player if this happens) or you can retreat it and attach 2 Rainbows and hope for no Catcher. It’s difficult but manageable.

Reshiplosion

Well, ReshiPlosion could think about playing Kingdra Prime since it has Candies. Probably the easiest way is still by outplaying Gothitelle. That can be done with Typhlosion Prime. Gothitelle’s energy acceleration isn’t always that good because Shaymin/Jirachi can be prized and not all players even play them. If you start discarding Energies with Flare Destroy as soon as possible, there is a great chance that Gothitelle will run out of energy. A good Gothitelle player has a way around this but this wouldn’t require any teches that disturb ReshiPlosion consistency.

Well I could run any tech Pokémon that can OHKO Gothitelle(Weezing etc.), right?

No you can’t. There are 2 reasons why you can’t use Stage1 Psychic Pokémons as Gothitelle counters.

1) Catcher – they will just Catcher your Koffing or whatever you’re countering Gothitelle with and kill it once you bench it.

2) Trainer lock – Well you may be smart and play 2-1 Weezing. They can’t Catcher both, right? Well you’re correct but you must remember that getting 1 Weezing of your deck in trainer lock is more than difficult in this format(unless you play 4 Proffesor Elm’s Training Method) of course. Also, once good Gothitelle player sees a threat he/she will try to build 2^nd Gothitelle ASAP and come walling with it or just move energies to the benched one with Shaymin.



That’s concludes it for this time! If you have any question, requests or comments about this deck or blog feel free to write in the comment area. I will answer to each question personally. Remember, I write for you!

// Be back to The Deck Out next Tuesday when it’s time for Battle Roads’ metagame analysis!