Gym Leader Challenge

Gallade can fetch any Supporter you need every turn while Malamar and Xatu serve as Energy acceleration engines. Add to that the Dimension Valley Stadium and you can power any attacker in a single turn. The deck also features some nasty surprises such as Wobbuffet who can disable all Pokémon Powers of non-Psychic Pokémon and Dusclops who can take out most benched support Pokémon in the format even through most bench barriers.

One of the rare weaknesses of the GLC format is that most decks do not have access to Bench protection. This unfortunate reality makes spread decks particularly effective. And among all the Energy types, Lightning possesses the best damage spreaders by far. If one manages to pull off an attack with Electivire followed by Raichu, it's usually enough to turn, leaving the opponent with very few support Pokémon - if any - in play. If that's not broken enough, thanks to the wide variety of cards available in GLC, you also get access to two Pokémon with Dynamotor ability, allowing you to attach three Energy cards per turn (or more, if you use Supporters).

Water type boasts some of the highest HP Pokémon in the GLC format, Wailord chief among them. With 240 base HP and Luxurious Cape as an optional attachment, it's basically impossible to knock it out in one hit. To help you set it up, the deck relies on impressive draw and search powers of Octillery and Inteleon while Baxcalibur and Frosmoth provide the best Energy acceleration engine in the format. And even if disaster strikes and Wailord goes down, a plethora of other impressive attackers - Kyogre, Lapras, Wishiwashi - are always ready to take its place.

The Colorless type has the strongest and most consistent draw engines in the format, period. Search options, however, are limited. To balance the scales, the deck includes a larger than average amount of Trainers that help you set things up and hinder your opponent. As far as attackers go, this deck includes one of the strongest ones out there, Snorlax, who can KO almost anything in the format in a single turn. The Journey Together set also brought Hop's Snorlax and Cramorant along with Hop's Choice Band, one of the most broken Tool cards in the format. To top it all off, because Colorless Pokémon can be powered by any Energy type, the deck is able to benefit from Special Energy more than any other.

Grass is one of the most consistent types in the GLC format. It's not uncommon to see all of this deck's key Pokémon fully set up in just a few turns despite there being three Stage 2 evolutions. As if that wasn't potent enough, the deck also boasts very powerful Energy engines: Venusaur's Jungle Totem, which doubles all the Grass Energy on all your Pokémon, and Rillaboom's Voltage Beat, which retrieves Grass Energy from the deck and immediately attach them. This impressive support allows you to set up equally impressive attackers, such as the hard-hitting Torterra or Tapu Bulu and the bulky Brambleghast.

Metal decks are generally not considered top tier in GLC. Even so, with powerful search and draw engines of Jirachi and Revavroom, excellent Energy acceleration of Metang and Bronzong, and strong basic attackers like Zamazenta, Zacian, Iron Crown, and Dialga this deck punches well above its weight class. And I'd of course be remiss not mention Archaludon, providing some much needed retreat aid while also being able to serve as a bulky attacker.

As one of the rare builds without any Stage 2 Pokémon, this deck is able to set up really quickly and hit the ground running. The idea is to start pressuring the opponent as soon as possible while you set up Guzzloard, your most important attacker, in the bench for a chance to strike at the perfect time for a two prize turn. The deck is also able to severely slow down your opponent with Galarian Weezing, not only neutralizing all Pokémon Powers but also inflicting Poison damage which ramps up alarmingly fast.

This deck boasts one of the most impressive array of setup Abilities in the format: Dragonite and Gabite allow you to fetch any Supporter and any Dragon Pokémon from your deck on every turn while Regidrago and Drakloak provide solid draw support. Add to that some of the most powerful Basic attackers in the format - Regidrago, Drampa, Druddigon - and you can quickly see why this is one of the best deck archetypes in the meta.