Pokemon TCG Pocket (PTCGP)

Gyarados Deck Strategy Guide and Card List

Pokemon TGC Pocket - Gyarados Deck Deck Build and How to Play

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!

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Gyarados Deck Guide

Deck Evaluation

Ace Pokemon Tier Ranking
Gyarados
Genetic Apex (A1)
Frosmoth
Genetic Apex (A1)
D Tier
Energy Type(s)
Water
F2P Friendly?
✔️
Deck Difficulty
Deck Strengths
Pokeball Icon Disrupts the opponent's set up with Gyarados being able to discard the opponent's Energy.

Pokeball Icon Can be powered up with lucky Misty flips.

Pokeball Icon Frosmoth is used to stall by putting opponents to Sleep.
Deck Weaknesses
Pokeball Icon Gyarados is Energy hungry and has a steep retreat cost.

Pokeball Icon 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

Packs Required for Gyarados Deck

Packs Needed for Gyarados Deck
Pokemon TCG Pocket - Promo-A Pack Pokemon TCG Pocket - Genetic Apex (A1) Pack Pokemon TCG Pocket - Genetic Apex (A1) Pack Pokemon TCG Pocket - Genetic Apex (A1) Pack

Hover over with your Cursor or Tap the packs to see which cards can be found in each pack!

How to Play Gyarados Deck

How to Play Gyarados Deck



Click the links above to jump to a certain section!

Gyarados Deck Core Combos and Interactions

Primary Attacker Disruption Description
Pokemon TCG Pocket - A1 078 GyaradosGyarados Pokemon TCG Pocket - A1 093 FrosmothFrosmoth ・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

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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: Fire

・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

・ 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

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Decks
Deck Building Guide

All Deck Tier Lists

All Tier Lists
Best Cards Tier List Best Meta Deck Tier List
Best Rental Deck Tier List Best F2P Beginner Decks

Deck Articles

Deck Articles
How Rental Decks Work Staple Cards for Decks
Aggro Decks Explained Deck Matchup Statistics
Best 18 Trainers Decks Best Misty Decks
Best Erika Decks 10 Match Tests vs Pikachu ex Deck - Statistics
List of Non-ex Decks

Meta Decks

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Infernape ex DeckInfernape ex Gallade exGallade ex Dialga ex and MelmetalDialga ex and Melmetal
Darkrai ex and WeezingDarkrai ex and Weezing LucarioLucario GarchompGarchomp
Porygon-ZPorygon-Z Togekiss NewTogekiss Dialga ex and BastiodonDialga ex and Bastiodon
RhyperiorRhyperior Mewtwo ex and GardevoirMewtwo ex and Gardevoir Celebi ex and SerperiorCelebi ex and Serperior
Pikachu ex and ZebstrikaPikachu ex and Zebstrika Gyarados ex and GreninjaGyarados ex and Greninja Vaporeon and Articuno exVaporeon and Articuno ex
Volcarona and Arcanine exVolcarona and Arcanine ex Scolipede and WeezingScolipede and Weezing Starmie ex and Articuno exStarmie ex and Articuno ex
Arcanine exArcanine ex BlaineBlaine Pikachu ex and RaichuPikachu ex and Raichu
Gyarados ex and VaporeonGyarados ex and Vaporeon Pidgeot exPidgeot ex Charizard exCharizard ex
Aerodactyl ex and PrimeapeAerodactyl ex and Primeape Exeggutor exExeggutor ex GolemGolem
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Mew ex and WeezingMew ex and Weezing DragoniteDragonite Articuno exArticuno ex
Venusaur exVenusaur ex Dragonite and WeezingDragonite and Weezing Lapras exLapras ex
Greninja Greninja Mewtwo ex and Weezing Mewtwo ex and Weezing Marowak exMarowak ex
PrimeapePrimeape Venusaur and WeezingVenusaur and Weezing ArbokArbok Lock
Zapdos exZapdos ex Blastoise exBlastoise ex Gengar exGengar ex
Machamp exMachamp ex Wigglytuff exWigglytuff ex MelmetalMelmetal
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Persian and MawilePersian and Mawile Lickitung and PrimeapeLickitung and Primeape Gengar ex and GolbatExeggutor ex and Alakazam
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