Heya everyone! Today we're exploring Gengar ex deck, an off-meta choice that plays Pokemon Pocket a bit differently than other decks. This is a psychic deck, and you usually want to pick psychic energy only since a1-123-gengarex doesn't have any colorless energy for his attack.
When picking a supporting Pokemon, we need something that can buy us time until the a1-123-gengarex can take over, so we have multiple choices I'll go over in this guide!
Gameplan
This deck is all about stalling out the game and getting a1-123-gengarex in play to carry the late game. This version has a1-120-gastly and a1-176-koffing as Basic Pokemon. Ideally, you'll want a1-176-koffing in the Active spot as you work on a1-120-gastly and attach psychic Energy to him.
We're not going for any Darkness Energy, so a1-176-koffing won't present any offensive threat. The plan is to evolve him into a1-177-weezing, who'll act as a tanky target that will buy you time until you set up your a1-123-gengarex win condition. The neat thing about a1-177-weezing is the Gas Leak ability, requiring no Energy to activate. Gas Leak poisons the opponent's Active Pokémon, slowly damaging it until another Pokemon can knock it out or it gets knocked out on its own.
The only downside to having a1-177-weezing in the Active spot is the retreat cost being 3 Energy, so we have two copies of a1-222-koga to help us bypass it. Using a1-222-koga, we can return a1-177-weezing to our hand, preventing the opponent from gaining a match point and allowing us to move a1-123-gengarex to carry the game.
Gengar ex Carry
a1-120-gastly and a1-121-haunter don't pose much aggression when played in the Active spot. a1-120-gastly deals 20 damage with Suffocating Gas and a1-121-haunter deals 30 damage with Will-O-Wisp. However, they are essential parts of our game plan since we'll evolve a1-120-gastly into a1-121-haunter and then get a1-123-gengarex into play.
a1-123-gengarex is the carry in this deck, requiring 3 psychic Energy to activate Spooky Shot, dealing 100 damage to the opponent's Active Pokemon. A 100-damage attack isn't too bad, knocking out basic Pokemon with one hit and requiring two attacks for high-health Pokemon.
However, a1-123-gengarex true strength lies with his Shadow Spellbind ability. As long as a1-123-gengarex is in the Active spot, your opponent can't play any Supporter cards. So cards like a1-225-sabrina, promo-7-professors-research, and a1-220-misty are now useless in their hand, affecting the opponent's strategy and possibly shutting it down entirely.
a1-123-gengarex's 170 HP makes him a difficult target to knock out, capable of retreating to safety when he's low on health.
Hypno Version
This version uses a1-125-hypno's Sleep Pendulum to flip a Coin, if it's heads you put your opponent's Active Pokemon to sleep. This will force opponents to flip a Coin to attack, giving them a 50% chance to activate their attack.
a1-125-hypno's job is to buy you time until a1-123-gengarex is ready. He's not on the list to push damage with Psypunch as you'll prioritize attaching Energy for the a1-123-gengarex strategy.
promo-12-meowth can be played early on to draw you cards with Pay Day, helping you find the key cards you need for your strategy. Often, you want to retreat him before opponents can knock him out, preventing them from earning an easy match point.
Gengar ex Weaknesses
- a1-123-gengarex is a stage 2 Pokemon so he'll be a slow setup. You might find yourself in situations where you're missing one Pokemon to get the strategy rolling. This also means you won't be able to make use of a1-123-gengarex's Shadowy Spellbind, a powerful ability to stop opponents from playing Support cards.
- This deck doesn't have any offensive power outside of a1-123-gengarex's Spooky Shot. Despite that, Spooky Shot's damage out is lackluster compared to other meta Pokemon like a1-129-mewtwoex's Psydrive.
Closing Words
Although Gengar ex isn't a popular meta deck in Pokemon Pocket, it has an interesting playstyle to test out! a1-123-gengarex shutting opponents from activating Supporter cards can catch them off guard and disrupt their game plan.
You can check out more Pokemon Pocket meta decks in my Meta Tier list! If you enjoy my Pokemon Pocket content and want to keep up with me, please follow my Twitter account!
