Colorless GLC Stall Deck

Hi guys today I'm going to illustrate a deck of my own invention, I wanted to do this article because I know some of you have asked for explanations about the function of Regigigas within the deck: this video by Alessandro Cremascoli (one of the strongest control players in the world) can help you to understand the role it played in a stall/control deck during its days of legality in Standard. After this review of TCG history, we can move on to talk about it in GLC.

History of the Archetype

In a nutshell it plays it like a wall, just think about the fact that together with Wishiwashi “Scatter” they are the only basic Pokemons in format with 180 hp. This by itself is an extraordinary quality. Right behind with 160 hp are: Dondozo whom we will hear little about in GLC probably, then Guzzlord from Ultraprism and Snorlax from Fusion Strike which both have better options under the same name. Only coming in third, at 150 hp, we start to find meta cards such as a handful of Snorlax, the most important ones definitely "Block" (also in our list today) and the one from Lost Origin played in attacking builds, the notorious infamous Guzzlord that in many games steals our wins, and two Zygardes, one for the dragon type and one for fighting. The only one to equal the record of Regi and Wishiwashi is Eiscue via his "Ice face" ability which give him +60hp when completely clean of damage reaching 180. A card that can make us fantasize to a possible stall/tank archetype with the support of SV's Slowbro and the previously mentioned attackers + Wailord. The only one to top all these thanks to its ability is UNB's Stakataka, which when the opponent is from 3 prizes down will gain 90hp to reach 200 total. Already some basis for a stall/control fight archetype has been laid in the last year of GLC by some players like Phoenixfire. We will keep an eye on what future sets will hold for these archetypes.

Regigigas made its first appearance in May 28, 2022 at a mirror Colorless event organized by JMershon and played by one of the strongest players in GLC, JeoshuaObladi. In fact, the deck rises from those ashes with the difference being that Regigigas was also attacking, and developing, building a hand, for a loop of Hex Manic, Silent Lab and Acerola with the help of Porygon Z and Delcatty. 160-190 damage to KO almost anything in format, block their abilities for a turn possibly and try to absorb the hit in return and clean it.

Strategy

Now let's get into the nitty gritty, my revamp takes away the attack factor and focuses more on the defense factor, in fact within the list there are Cheren’s Care and Acerola to have a healing loop via Delcatty along with Scoop Up Net. Delcatty is a key card for recycling supporters both healing but also recovery and mill cards. Another pillar in our plans and strategies that we're going to develop is Muchlax: in this control variant we make generous use of its ability, having it as an end-of-turn option to recover everything you've used up to that point is very important. Most of the times the recovery are items like Scoop Up Net, Counter Catcher, Rescue Stretcher or Yell Horn. Speaking of the latter, I noticed that during testing cards such as Echoing Horn and Poke Puff could be bypassed easily by the opponent, so in this deck Yell Horn turns out to be the natural replacement for these two. If your opponent decides to stay all alone with the active Pokemon in order to circumvent our Snorlax win condition, Yell Horn would definitely benefit us more. Why should I use two spaces in a GLC deck when I can save one? Besides this, another very strong combo is Yell Horn + Snorlax active so you can try to force your opponent to attack with a coin flip. Snorlax can give you win conditions that Regigigas cannot. As we all know Snorlax does not allow the active Pokemon to retreat. Unfortunately, we have this ability on a Snorlax because we deprive ourselves of the "Gormandize" choice, for the early game, but in support in that consistency department comes another very strong card, Tropical Beach. It allows us to draw until we have 7 cards in hand and then end the turn, the effect is the same. As for the engine it is one of the strongest, consistent and easy to set up in the format, the pair Pidgeotto/Cinccino (all grabable with level ball and Wynona) which allows us to see 4 more cards every turn without necessarily having to change hand. A very strong card with Cinccino is Mallow which as you may know allows you to stack any 2 cards on the top of your deck, draw and do your play.

Matchups

Vs a spread deck we have at our disposal Sky Pillar, a card that also prevents damage counters. We will always win the stadium war, except maybe only in one specific case. We will not always succeed that against LZ Psych. The reason is Lost Vaccum. For this matchup in fact the Big Parasol was designed at least to not have complete autoloss, and it can also come in handy against Weezing. To prevent the play of Lost Vacuum we will have to try and discard it with Miss Fortune Sisters, Team Rocket’s Handiwork or Persian in the first turns, or also going to find luck and discard it with Bunnelby right away is a good strategy.

It's best not to have both Sky Pillar and Big Parasol on the field because they are easily removed in the same moment through Field Blower, try to save as many resources as possible. If the Blower is for some reason already on the discard or lost zone, go safe and put both, Vacuum can only remove one between Sky Pillar and Parasol.

Regigigas is strong during the whole game, not only at the beginning but also in mid and especially in the end, because most of your opponent's gusts will surely be in the discard pile. The resources to make a 180 or more damage OHKO will be running out and we will have maybe already reached a retreat stall plan with Snorlax. The weakness guard energy is meant to have a good matchup even against Fighting. Regigigas can give you auto win against all those decks that can't do much damage such as: psychic, lighting, dark, fire, in short you just need your opponent to be unable to do more than 220 damage so we will be able to heal and play a disruption card at the same time thanks to Lt. Surge. Otherwise, if they can succeed in the project, for example against Grass and Water, types that do exponential damage, Snorlax will be your win condition. For all those Pokemon that need special energies to increase their damage range (like Wailord), we will have Enhanced Hammer and Faba at our disposal.

Persian is the best card for destroying your opponent's hand because we are going to discard only what we are interested in i.e. gusts and ways to switch. We will have to try to attack from the early turns with Persian, because in the mid game and end game it will not be possible or at least I do not recommend it. An interesting combo can be Reset Stamp for 6 + Persian. The Lost City against this deck can be dangerous, but at the same time it may turn out not necessarily to be an autoloss, because both Regigigas and Snorlax are 2 very annoying Pokémons so you can find a win condition even if you lose one of them.

Parallel City is great for destroying the opponent's bench but in this deck it is also the most interchangeable card replaceable for Tag Call, Acro Bike or a card of your choice.

The last card I will tell you about is Tate & Liza, which in addition to drawing will mainly serve you to never find yourself in a deckout position. The worst matchups are definitely fire mill for obvious reasons, and control colorless, being that we only play special energies, their Faba will do a lot of harm if recycled multiple times: it is at your discretion to play a basic energy if your meta requires it. Pokémon GO's Bibarel could be included to win both these matchups.

Obviously to be able to play this deck, but more generally a control deck, you need a good knowledge of the meta, of all the possible ways to play around our strategy. It is not however an easy deck to play, you have to know how to manage well your timings to play every single card. It also happened to me that I could not use Lt. Surge because my opponent could not get the first Ko, in this case I suggest to let them do the first KO so you will go faster. The cards we don't like to see are the combination of Cynthia & Caitlin + Lusamine, because in this way the opponent is able to retrieve ways to switch and multiple gusts endlessly, thus creating a loop that we can't break; unless we create a situation whereby we will Reset Stamp by 3 or less + Delinquent, risking the play looking for luck. Another way is by discarding it from the top with Team Rocket’s Handiwork or Bunnelby.

In conclusion right now it is one of the best ways to play control because it is very versatile and requires no special maintenance, and it has a good matchup against the whole meta.

Deck List