Gardevoir ex will never die!!!!
Before the 2024 standard rotation, many top players were worried that Gardevoir ex would be rotating out of format, it’s former power gone for good. Today, however, Gardevoir has proven itself to be a top tier deck
This Gardevoir ex deck is so strong for a couple of reasons. Namely, two. It’s draw engine is one of the best in the standard format right now. And Gardevoir ex can accelerate energies to dish out damage via a variety of other attackers like no one’s business.
To ensure your best odds of victory when playing this now legendary deck, you will need to follow the steps below.
First of all, bench several Ralts. This deck is highly dependent on you having Ralts in play so that you can later evolve into Kirlia and then Gardevoir.
Because this deck doesn’t have a first turn attack option, whether you go first or second, you’re really just looking to get as many Ralts down as you can. While you’re working on building up your board, you can slow down your opponent with a mix of Flutter Mane and Klefki, both of which shut down abilities and make it harder for your opponent to get their strategy going ahead of you.
Once you manage to get Gardevoir ex into play, you’re going to look to accelerate energies as the situation dictates to ensure you’re taking knockouts without opening up too many opportunities for your opponent.
Gardevoir’s Psychic Embrace is the backbone of the entire deck, allowing you to accelerate as many energies as you want from your discard. There is a catch to this ability, however. For every energy you attach, you will be doing two damage to your Pokemon.
One of the biggest worries following rotation was that Gardevoir ex would lose significant firepower thanks to the fact Gardevoir from Chilling Reign was rotating out. However, that’s not proven to be the case as new means of bolstering HP for attackers has come along. Mostly, this applies to Screaming Tail and Drifloon
Both Scream Tail and Drifloon can have their HP beefed up by 100 depending on which Pokemon Tool they are using. With those huge boosts to their HP, they can start taking OHKOs when powered up with Psychic Embrace.
In some ways, this strategy is even stronger than relying on the Gardevoir from Chilling Reign. In order to get that Gardevoir into play and powered up you needed to ensure you had a relatively weak Ralts in play to evolve. Now, you can dish out insane amounts of damage via basic Pokemon, which is harder to counter.
The supporters in this deck play a vital role in winning. Your most important supporter is Arven which will enable you search your deck for a both an item card and a Pokemon Tool. Pokemon Tools are going to help you get off your most powerful attacks and gain that favorable Prize trade against two-prize Pokemon. Meanwhile, you also have a Professor Turo’s Scenario to bounce Pokemon with high HP damage on them back into your hand before your opponent can take the knockout. Last but not least, this deck runs one copy of Eri to slow your opponent down.
You also have access to the powerful Evolution TM which will help you speed up your pace of play. Use TM as early as possible (and search it out with Arven) to get your Gardevoir ex in play much faster than would normally be possible, and without having to rely on Rare Candy.
Whether you are looking to play Gardevoir at your next big event, or simply want to learn how to take this powerhouse deck down, it’s always good to know what the strengths and weaknesses of a top meta deck are. Here are Gardevoir’s biggest weaknesses.
One major difference with playing Gardevoir ex post rotation you’ll notice right away is that there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to shutting its abilities down. It’s main weakness before rotation was if Path to the Peak was in play. Today, that’s not really an issue anymore, removing the need to take up valuable slots in your deck with excess Stadiums or supporters like Worker that discard stadiums.
Top players I’ve played against would rather give up a tow-prize knockout turn in favor of getting rid of Sableye when playing the Giratina VSTAR/Gardevoir ex matchup. The reason for this is that Psychic Embrace causes damage to Pokemon, and that means placing strategic damage counters on your opponent’s Pokemon with Lost Mine is a great way to prevent knockouts. If you’re running Lost Zone against this deck, look to get rid of Jirachi if you can, as it really hurts your chances of winning. Similarly, if you’re playing against Lost Box, get that Jirachi down as soon as they start building up cards in the Lost Zone.
One way to quickly take this deck down is just to get rid of Ralts quicker than your opponent can evolve them. Until Gardevoir hits the field, both Ralts and Kirlia are very vulnerable Pokemon with easy HP to take out. If you can pin your opponent down with only one Ralts in play, you can pretty easily dismantle this deck.
Additionally, one play that’s gained popularity is to use Devolution to counter Rare Candy dependent decks. Devolution removes the Stage 2 Pokemon, forcing you to have to evolve either via Kirlia or Rare Candy again.
Admittedly, that’s not as much of an issue in this deck as it is in others because you have plenty of Kirlia. But it can take you off guard and slow you down.
Despite there being two majorly popular decks out there running Dark type Pokemon, Gardevoir has still managed to dominate. That being said, the weakness can be an issue. Gardevoir has pretty bulky HP but that means nothing if your opponent manages to OHKO you with a dark type Pokemon like Roaring Moon ex or Charizard ex. That being said, there’s so many ways to OHKO apart from weakness right now that it may not really be as big of a deal as you might think.
Weaknesses aside, Gardevoir is a strong deck, and there’s a reasons it is one of the most popular and successful competitive decks.
Oh yes and Long Live Gardevoir ex!!!!! 🇧🇪
