Gyarados Deck Strategy Guide and Card List

The Gyarados Deck is a Disruptive Water-type Deck featuring Gyarados and Frosmoth from the Genetic Apex Set in Pokemon Trading Card Game Pocket (PTCG Pocket). Read on for the complete list of cards in this deck, basic information on the deck, how to play the deck, and optimal matchups for it!

Gyarados Deck Guide

Deck Evaluation

Ace Pokemon						Tier Ranking
Gyarados Genetic Apex (A1)			Frosmoth Genetic Apex (A1)
						Energy Type(s)
						F2P Friendly?
						✔️
						Deck Difficulty
						★
Deck Strengths
Disrupts the opponent's set up with Gyarados being able to discard the opponent's Energy. Can be powered up with lucky Misty flips. Frosmoth is used to stall by putting opponents to Sleep.
Deck Weaknesses
Gyarados is Energy hungry and has a steep retreat cost. Reliant on lucky sleep flips.

Best Meta Decks Tier List

List of Cards

Gyarados Deck List
Pokemon Cards
Magikarp ×2				Gyarados ×2				Snom ×2				Frosmoth ×2
Trainer Cards
Misty ×2				Sabrina ×2				X Speed ×2				Poke Ball ×2
Red Card ×2				Professor's Research ×2

Deck Building Guide

How to Play Gyarados Deck

How to Play Gyarados Deck
Core Combos and Interactions Starting Hand Deck Strategies Game Phases

Gyarados Deck Core Combos and Interactions

Primary Attacker	Disruption	Description
Gyarados	Frosmoth	・Gyarados has a high cost Hyper Beam which Misty can quickly build up. ・There's not much your opponent can do once you get Gyarados up early as it can beat over most Basic Pokemon. ・Can be disruptive with Frosmoth's Sleep from Powder Snow.

Best Starting Hand

Best Starting Hand

You would always want to have Misty in your opening hand. A successful heads flip can win you the game outright, creating an advantage that most opponents can't catch up to.

Other Good Starting Cards

Recommended Starting Hand

You need to start with Magikarp and Snom to build your board early. You can search Magikarp out with Poke Ball or try your luck with Professor Oak and hope to draw into it.

Best Cards Tier List

Gyarados Deck Strategies

Gyarados Deck Strategies
Frosmoth Stall Misty Energy Accelerator

Strategy 1: Frosmoth Stall

Frosmoth Stall Strategy

While you have Magikarp benched, you can use Frosmoth to stall out your opponents by putting them to Sleep. This will allow you to bide your time so you can build up Magikarp until it evolves and accumulate enough energy to attack with Hyper Beam as Gyarados.

Strategy 2: Misty Energy Accelerator

Misty can easily provide the Energy Gyarados needs for it to quickly fire off Hyper Beams. Do note that this depends on your luck in coin flips, so make sure you have enough Energy before setting Gyarados as your Active Pokemon.

Game Phases

Early Game

Key Card(s) Required
Step	Description
1	Make sure you have Snom as your Active then have Magikarp on Bench. Use the Poke Ball to seach either one out.
2	Give Snom two Energy so it can attack and put enemies to Sleep as Frosmoth.

Mid-Game

Key Card(s) Required
Step	Description
1	Frosmoth will still be your active Pokemon. This time, funnel all your Energy onto Gyarados.
2	If you have Misty in your hand, you can use it to quickly meet Gyarados' Energy requirements.
3	As backup, you can also have another Magikarp in bench in case they KO your other one.

Late Game

Key Card(s) Required
1	You can retreat Frosmoth or just sacrifice it and get Gyarados out. Have it attack and shred your opponents Energy making it unable to attack.
2	Misty can help with gaining more energy to build another Gyarados in your Bench. This way, you don't lose momentum if they get your Active Gyarados low on HP.
3	Sabrina can swap out your opponent's Benched and Active Pokemon and further disrupt their setup.

Gyarados Deck Best and Worst Matchups

Best Matchups

Deck	Commentary
Charizard ex Decks	Type: ・Water Decks naturally match up favorably against Fire decks. ・Moltres ex can't provide Energy to Benched Pokemon if it's Asleep.

Worst Matchups

Deck	Commentary
Pikachu ex Decks	Type: ・ Lightning Decks focus on swapping around and having low Energy costs. ・ Difficult counterplay to disadvantageous damage trades.
Sabrina	・ Magikarp and Gyarados without Energy are easy targets when swapped off your Frosmoth. ・ Victreebel and Pidgeot also have the same effect as Abilities. ・ You can lose a ton of advantage if Magikarp gets KO'd before you get to evolve it.

Overall Consistency

This Gyarados deck has decent power but is a bit slower due to Gyrados' high energy cost and suffers from its reliance on coin flips.

This deck heavily relies on Misty, so not drawing into it early or having horrible coin flip luck on can snowball into having to build up Energy manually.

Gyarados Deck F2P & Substitutes

Gyarados Deck Card Substitutes

Card	Explanation
Starmie ex	・ Adding a secondary attacker can change the gameplan of the deck. ・ Starmie is energy-efficient with its Attack and can retreat for free.
Articuno ex	・ Lower Energy requirements than Gyarados. ・ Easier to set-up since it's a Basic Pokemon.

Pokemon TCG Pocket Meta Guide

Gyarados Deck Other Viable Options

Card	Possible Cuts
Greninja	・ Decent chip damage and doen't need energy to activate its Ability while benched. ・ Can help pick off Pokemon with HP higher than 100 like Chansey. ・ Can be detrimental if you use Poke Ball and you get Froakie instead of Magikarp.

F2P Gyarados Deck List

F2P Gyarados Deck List
Pokemon Cards
Magikarp x2	Gyarados x2	Snom x2	Frosmoth x1
Froakie x1	Frogadier x1	Greninja x1
Trainer Cards
Misty x2	Sabrina x1	Poke Ball x2	X Speed x2
Red Card x1	Professor's Research x2

This deck functions well with Greninja offering chip damage without the need to invest Enegy into it in Bench. This deck is good if you still don't have the resources, but is highly inconsistent due to Greninja being a Stage 2 Pokemon.

Pokemon TCG Pocket Beginner's Guide

Pokemon TCG Pocket Related Guides

Deck Building Guide

All Deck Tier Lists

Rental Deck Articles

Meta Decks

Best Meta Decks
Starmie ex Deck	Mewtwo ex Deck
Dragonite Deck	Articuno ex Deck
Arbok Lock Deck	Venusaur ex Deck
Blaine Deck	Pikachu ex Deck
Marowak ex Deck	Charizard ex Deck
Machamp ex Deck	Blastoise ex Deck
Frosmoth and Articuno ex Deck	Exeggutor ex Deck
Centiskorch and Moltres ex Deck	Arcanine ex Deck
Gengar ex Deck	Gyarados Deck

Starter Decks

All Starter Decks
Pinsir Starter Deck	Rapidash Starter Deck	Sandslash Starter Deck

Rental Decks

All Rental Decks
Nidoking and Nidoqueen Rental Deck	Kanto Fossils Rental Deck
Koga Rental Deck