This is my Dark Gyarados deck list. I think it’s a real fun time, since there are 8 ways to search for Gyarados, as well as final beam just being a real feel good poke power.
here are some thoughts I had about the list.
I didn’t add professor oak because I’m a baby coward who doesn’t like the thought of having more dark gyarados available than magikarp to evolve from.
I play energy search because it’s a great way to thin the deck down a little, making it more consistent.
no removal gym is there because energy removal isn’t fun to play against.
because the deck runs the boss’s way, as well as having 4 dark dragonair, you could probably change the items around to make it a chaos gym list, since boss’s way has a good chance to be non-applicable to your opponent.
You could also probably port this deck list over to the rocket-on format, and make rocket’s hideout your stadium of choice.
I’m unsure as to whether energy retrieval or misty’s tears are better.
Let me know your thoughts and what you’d change!
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I’ve played Dark Gyarados several times in Prop 15/3, a Wizards of the Coast Base-Gym format where decks use up to 15 trainer cards and up to 3 copies of any card with the same name (except for basic Energy). It joins Articuno as the primary attacker in Rain Dance decks, and I agree that it is a fun Pokémon to play with. I’m not sure how I feel about playing it without Blastoise, but since this is Career, I will keep my suggestions to a minimum.
Out of curiosity, why did you add Double Colorless Energy when Dark Gyarados’s attack cost is all Water? Is it to help Dark Dragonite attack? Dark Dragonite does less damage on average than Kangaskhan from Jungle, and for the same Energy cost. If you’re looking for a Pokémon that can start attacking in the late game, you might want to choose a basic attacker instead. Lapras isn’t as strong as Articuno, but it gives this deck a way to hit Mr. Mime.
I would still want to include one Professor Oak. As you continue to thin out your deck, you will also probably thin out your hand, and a late game Professor Oak could find you several useful cards.
There are lots of different routes you could go with this deck, and lots of upgrades that most players would suggest (such as adding Computer Search), but since it’s Career, investing too heavily in the wrong cards could be devastating, so play some games with this deck and figure out what is and isn’t working. Are manual attachments not fast enough? It might be time to switch to a Blastoise engine. Is your opponent readily discarding Energy to pay the cost of No Removal Gym? Perhaps Chaos Gym would work better. Do you need a cheap attacker more than a Super Energy Removal counter? Clefable could fill this niche well. Before buying cards, though, try testing your deck idea in Quickplay first, asking for people to use their Career lists instead of normal lists and writing down observations even if they don’t.
Hope this helps.
I run double colorless energy because It helps Dragonair swing in early. I want it to evolve as soon as possible, since that’s extra dark pokemon in my hand, but I run into the opportunity cost of not getting to attack with it, since it’s about as likely to be my leading basic as magikarp is. I often wait to evolve my dragonair, since dealing 20 or 40 damage is good way to hit small basics while I put energy on gyarados. I run a single dragonite since it grabs a magikarp and dratini, and can be searched with dragonair. I don’t really run it for damage.
the deck relies on a 30 hp and 40 hp pokemon evolving for it’s damage, and a hitmonchan with a plus power easily bodies my magikarp. Double colorless helps in the beginning of a match, since if I open with a dratini and a double, I have a 50/50 paralysis chance, which helps keep my magikarp alive for a turn so it can evolve into the much bulkier dark gyarados.
I do need an answer to mr.mime, since dragonair has a 50% chance of doing nothing to it, and I really don’t want a magikarp or dratini as my active for very long. Lapras is an amazing fit for the deck, since it’s confuse ray and 80 hp make for a great protector early game.
In regards to no removal gym, the discard cost has been doing a good job of getting people to not use it as frequently. obviously, people still use it to strip double colorless if they have it, but it does help cut down on my dark gyarados not being able to attack.
In regards to chaos gym, I think it would be a good fit, but I just don’t like how it feels.
I thought about putting in blastoise, But it would take away space for boss’s way, dratini and dark dragonair which would make the deck overall less consistent.
If I converted the list to prop/15, I’d definitely have room to put in blastoise.
I’m really grateful that you responded to my post, and I’ve already slotted in 3 Lapras.
Thanks for the feedback!
Glad I could help! Hope Lapras serves you well!
(P.S. if you build a Dark Gyarados/Blastoise Prop 15/3 deck in Quickplay, I would recommend keeping Jason’s list as-is instead of trying to fit Dark Dragonair. Dark Dragonair has limited viability in Prop 15/3, where Pokémon Trader is the staple Pokémon search. When you have twenty or more Pokémon in your deck, you will almost always have something to swap in, which is why Prop 15/3 decks have completely replaced Bill with Trader.
I added Dark Dragonair/Dark Dragonite to my IRL (proxied) Rain Dance in a desperate attempt to improve its matchup against the Venusaur deck I was teaching my dad to play with. I took out Dark Gyarados to make room for it (since it wasn’t working very well in that specific matchup), but since the only other evolution line I was running was Blastoise, I found myself spending a Trader to search out Dark Dragonair, searching out one Pokémon I actually needed, and then evolving it to put two, or, more often, one Pokémon onto my bench. That first Dark Dragonite ended up having negative synergy with the next one and became dead weight on my bench. I would have been better off just fetching that one Pokémon with the Trader in the first place. It didn’t really help Blastoise in the Venusaur matchup, and I would have been better off adding Clefable to replace Dark Gyarados, since it could hit Venusaur for 60 damage efficiently.
That being said, I like Dark Dragonair and Dark Dragonite better in this list, given the emphasis on thinning and Dark Dragonite’s positive synergy with your Trainer lineup’s ability to consistently search evolved Pokémon but inability to search out basics. Thanks for explaining the choice of Double Colorless Energy, by the way!
