Hi, everyone! I’m Michael, TSS’s newest member, and I’m here today to talk about a Gardevoir list that I feel is incredibly strong for local events in the Twilight Masquerade format. While we are getting closer to Worlds and therefore a new format, there are still some local events before then, and moreover, this list can definitely be carried over to the Shrouded Fable format as well. So, without further ado, let’s get started!
The List
Here is the list; many of these counts might seem weird, but I’ll do my best to make them make sense. As for how I came up with this list, I wanted to address the issues that I ran into at NAIC playing Gardevoir. Two of my losses were to Lost Box, a matchup that I completely underestimated and didn’t account for list-wise, and another was to Raging Bolt with Jamming Tower, a card that, when played early, completely shut down TM: Evolution and therefore ruined our setup. My only natural tie was to Henry Brand, and while he was never able to use double Munkidori to its full potential during our set, I still realized how much danger I would’ve been in had he gotten off one of those combos. Finally, while I did beat the one Charizard I played, it was only because they bricked so ridiculously hard that they pretty much didn’t set up at all in both games. The Top 8 Gardevoir lists from NAIC all had pieces that solved these problems, so all I had to do was put them together in a coherent way.
2 Munkidori
2 Munkidori is what makes this deck so broken. It makes so many different plays possible; TM: Devolution is now way stronger, your attackers can hit even higher numbers, and spread attacks like Lost Mine and Phantom Dive are much easier to deal with. Also, having a better chance to naturally draw into a Munkidori or having a Munkidori available if you prize one and can’t rely on Hisuian Heavy Ball are valuable as well. At this point, I would never play Gardevoir without 2 copies of Munkidori.
Driffloon
Drifloon is an amazing attacker, but not just because of its high damage potential with Bravery Charm. While Gardevoir ex is also an amazing attacker in a variety of situations and hits a very respectable amount of damage, there are situations where you don’t want to leave your Gardevoir ex vulnerable in the Active. This is where Drifloon comes in. With Munkidori, Drifloon is able to knock out any 210 HP 2-prizers, most importantly Teal Mask Ogerpon ex, and with double Munkidori Drifloon can knock out any Basic 2-prizer aside from Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex. This is important specifically for the Raging Bolt and Regidrago matchups, where both decks make use of Teal Mask Ogerpon and also threaten Gardevoir ex, making it hard to attack with it. Otherwise, Drifloon is just a generally solid low-maintenance attacker, and with Bravery Charm it gives you a solid option to close out games or remove important high-HP pieces from the opponent’s board in the mid-game.
Cresselia
Cresselia is mainly useful in the Dragapult and Gardevoir mirror matchups. Honestly, I would love to cut this card, but it provides just enough value that it’s hard to justify not running it. In the mirror, you ideally want to have double Munkidori powered up to remove damage from your field; however, this is an ideal situation, and something your opponent will try to deny. Having Cresselia allows you to have a backup option to heal damage and stop devastating plays your opponent is trying to set up. Also, double Munkidori allows you to commit fewer Psychic Energy if only one of your Pokemon is heavily damaged. For example, with a Gardevoir ex in the Active with 80 damage on it, you can use both Munkidori and Cresselia to heal all of the damage and deal 100 damage, while only needing to Psychic Embrace once to Cresselia. Against Dragapult, if the opponent realizes that you don’t play Cresselia, they can spread damage to multiple targets with Dragapult instead of hitting a single target, since you cannot heal all of the damage even with double Munkidori. Having Cresselia makes it a lot harder for your opponent to take multiple prize turns, which is what they need to keep up.
Klefki
Klefki makes the Lost Box matchup much more manageable. It gives you a second Ability lock Pokemon to start if you go second, and it’s searchable with Buddy-Buddy Poffin, so you have a very good chance to find it going first. With Hyper Aroma instead of Unfair Stamp, the Lost Box matchup is even more difficult if you don’t run Klefki, so it feels like a must-have. Besides Lost Box, though, Klefki has a lot of utility into Raging Bolt, Miraidon, and Regidrago as well. Against Raging Bolt and Miraidon specifically, there’s a lot less strain on your bench space, so even if they are able to break the lock and knock out one of your Benched Pokemon, you’re fine having Klefki just sitting there on the Bench as long as it bought you enough time to set up.
4 Arven
This was originally 3 Arven and 1 Irida so that I could justify running 1 Nest Ball. However, Irida is terrible. Yes, you can potentially thin an extra card with it when you’ve already thinned all of your useless Tools, or find Greninja/Manaphy on turn 1 with it, but the tradeoff of having a less consistent TM: Evolution is huge. Running Hyper Aroma means that you often don’t need to rely on TM: Evolution, but when you do need TM: Evolution, having fewer outs to it can be game-losing.
2 Professor Turo’s Scenario
Having 2 copies of Turo is just really nice for consistency’s sake. Turo is necessary to loop Gardevoir ex in certain matchups, such as Dragapult and Lugia(after you’ve removed both of their Archeops), so having a second copy makes Turo easier to find in those situations and also a viable card to discard in a pinch. Against decks that take a prize lead and threaten Gardevoir ex with a one hit knock out, such as Charizard and Raging Bolt, Turo is also important to deny them that 2-prize knock out, and so the same reasoning of 2 Turo being easy to find and becoming a viable discard also applies here.
2 Nest Ball
There are quite a few Pokemon in this list that are not Buddy-Buddy Poffin searchable, and while Artazon can stick in play and provide value for multiple turns, it can also just be bumped immediately. Having 2 copies of Nest Ball in addition to the 2 Artazon makes pulling together combos easier, especially since many of those combos involve those non Buddy-Buddy Poffin searchable Pokemon.
2 Earthen Vessel
Your first Earthen Vessel is often used to find 2 Psychic Energy to discard, which means that without a second one, finding Darkness Energy for Munkidori is significantly more difficult. Running 1 Vessel and 3 Darkness Energy is a potential alternative, but I value the flexibility of a second Vessel a bit more.
Hyper Aroma
Unfair Stamp is undoubtedly an amazing card. Not just because of its insane level of disruption so early in the game, but also because it provides you with solid draw at the end of the game. The consistency boost of Hyper Aroma feels so powerful, though, that I believe it fits more. One of Gardevoir’s biggest struggles is its early game setup, and having Hyper Aroma smooths that out significantly. You’re no longer left with potentially only a single Kirlia off of a TM: Evolution(if your opponent targets a Kirlia, which they will definitely try to do), and you no longer need to waste your Ultra Balls to find Kirlias and discard cards that you might want to keep in hand. Jamming Tower, a card that people will definitely be playing after Gardevoir’s success at NAIC, also has no effect on Hyper Aroma, and so you can still easily set up without worrying about it. You no longer need to have an Energy in hand, either. The only problem is that you need to have a Poffin or at least sufficient Pokemon search on your first turn, most likely going first, but honestly, there are so many ways that purely relying on TM: Evolution can go wrong that I wouldn’t worry about this too much. You’re not just relying on Hyper Aroma, you also have that copy of TM: Evolution that you can still use if necessary. Having the flexibility to use both is incredibly strong, as is having that extra slot from cutting the second TM: Evolution.
TM: Devolution
TM: Devolution is the only way you can consistently beat Charizard, but it does also have solid applications against the Gardevoir mirror and Dragapult. Against Charizard, it pairs nicely with double Munkidori and Flutter Mane to quickly accumulate damage on their side of the field and eventually board wipe them. The same can be done against Dragapult, although it is more difficult for it to stick since they rely more on their Stage 1 than Charizard does. Against the mirror, Devo forces them to make sure their Gardevoir ex never has 20 or more damage on it, otherwise double Munkidori into Devo will knock out their Gardevoir ex and leave them with no way to get another one into play on their next turn. It also lets you gust Gardevoir ex and attack it with Flutter Mane in a pinch; if they don’t find a way out of that on their next turn, you can follow up with a Devo.
1 Bravery Charm
You often don’t need Bravery Charm to win games, and when you do, it’s usually to close out a game, so if your one copy is prized, you should have drawn it off of the prizes at that point. Having a single copy does also give you the flexibility to make early or mid game plays where a Bravery Charm Drifloon knockout puts you in a good position, or where you need Charm to prevent a knockout on a Scream Tail or Flutter Mane you’re attacking with.
2 Artazon
2 Stadium bumps are necessary, and Artazon specifically helps the deck function more consistently, especially when it sticks in play for multiple turns.
7 Psychic Energy
With the deck being less reliant on big Drifloon knockouts, you don’t need too many Psychic Energy in the Discard, especially not in the early game. 7 Psychic Energy is enough that a big Drifloon knockout is still doable with no prizes taken unless your prizes are insanely unlucky.
Finally Thoughts
Hopefully the counts make a bit more sense now. I think it’s definitely possible to continue improving this list, so I’ll leave it up to you guys to play around with it and see what works and doesn’t work! I will list a couple of changes that I’ve been considering, though.
Tatsugiri is a potential replacement for Greninja. It’s searchable off Poffin, and more importantly, you can have your opponent remove it from the board for you by knocking it out instead of having to Turo it like Greninja. That said, it has very little value if you already have a Supporter in hand, it interferes a lot with powering up Munkidori, and it can’t replace knocked out Kirlias like Greninja can.
Enhanced Hammer was the cut for the second Nest Ball, but without Hammer or Temple, the Lugia matchup is really difficult to win. It’s one thing to count on Lugia bricking before or after they set up(which both Hammer and Temple help with), but just counting on them not setting up entirely isn’t a viable strategy, and so I wouldn’t expect to beat Lugia without one of these two cards.
Finally, if you don’t expect too much Lost Box, Klefki can definitely be cut. This is especially relevant in the upcoming Shrouded Fable format, where Lost Box’s viability will almost certainly take a hit. You could replace it with Mimikyu, or Hammer, or, if you still want to respect Lost Box, a second Flutter Mane.
Thank you all for reading! Enjoy playing this super fun deck, and feel free to reach out with any questions!
Michael Chen
- by The Shuffle Squad LLC
Ultimate Guide For Gardevoir ex With Shrouded Fable
- by The Shuffle Squad LLC
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