GLC Modern Rainbow Colorless

Back in 2003 Nintendo released a new game for the GameBoy Advanced called Pokemon Pinball. If anyone remembers this game, then surely you cannot forget about the illustrious Kecleon bonus level. I remember sitting on the swing at recess as a kid, squinting at the dark screen of my GameBoy due the reflection of the sunlight, trying to track down the invisible Kecleon as he scurried his way around the shrubs evasively dodging everything I threw at him. There was nothing more frustrating than this, and this deck will cause that same sense of frustration to your opponents as Kecleon leads you to victory in GLC. Kecleon always reminds me of this game and the joy that it brought me when I was younger, and thus Kecleon will always be one of my favorite Pokemon. Now that you know where the inspiration all started I will get into the background behind my experience with the Rapid Strike Kecleon.

The Background

I was originally inspired by the new release of Kecleon from Chilling Reign when I first started playing the standard format of the pokemon TCG back in 2022. I made multiple attempts to find a way to make a competitive deck with Kecleon at the forefront but struggled to find success because of a lack of consistency in options for energy acceleration. However, a few sets later I discovered an ideal match that fit the playstyle of Kecleon perfectly. With the introduction of the new lost zone engine from Lost Origin, the item card Mirage Gate enabled Kecleon to accelerate multiple energies of the desired type consistently. I then formulated a lost box style Kecleon deck featuring Radiant Greninja and Articuno from Pokemon Go which boosts the damage of basic water pokemon (Before Weakness) by 10. This meant that while Kecleon had a water energy attached along with Super Effective Glasses, it could hit a massive 300 damage which was enough to OHKO anything in the format. Kecleon was able to trade very efficiently with the VStar and VMax Pokemon at the time since it was a single prize pokemon which could take multi-prize knockouts. If further damage was needed, the supporter card Grant could also be used in conjunction with Super Effective Glasses and Articuno to boost Kecleons damage to a maximum of 390. I played this standard format deck list to a few different local tournaments and managed to pilot it to a win at a League Challenge event. Unfortunately, my success with the Kecleon Lost Box deck was short-lived as Kecleon was rotated out of the standard format last year with the rest of the E-block cards.

Since then, I have been exploring new ideas on how to make Kecleon work in GLC. I wanted to stick with my lost box background with the construction of this deck, as I already knew the potential of Kecleon in combination with Mirage Gate. However, using a lost box engine in GLC is very different from that of a standard format deck. As a singleton format, you are limited to a single copy of every card, which in turn means that your lost zone decisions are that much more important because the cards cannot be recovered. Additionally, only having the capability to play one copy of Mirage Gate, means that your timing on when you choose to use it is critical. One copy may not seem like a lot, but even one use of Mirage Gate in a match of GLC can be extremely impactful.

First I will give an overall look at the full list that I used to win my Colorless Badge on CBW:

The List

Main Attackers

Starting off with the Pokemon, there are 4 main attackers in this list. I focused mainly on using basic attackers because they are easy to setup and easy to recover. Each of these attackers have their place in the list and I find that depending on your matchup, some are better than others.

Kecleon is the star of the show with its ability “Chromashift” which allows it to change into each type of basic energy it has attached to it. This means that Kecleon can be any type, or multiple types at the same time. The advantage of this ability is that it allows you to manipulate the weakness and resistance based on the defending Pokemon's type. Kecleon can hit for 180 damage with the appropriate energy attached, or for 270 damage with Super Effective Glasses attached. This means that Kecleon has the highest potential damage output out of the 4 attackers, however it also has the lowest amount of HP. Kecleon is kind of a glass cannon, as it is knocked out very easily. It is best to use Kecleon to take out high HP Pokemon like Wailord, or Okidogi as it can OHKO anything over 200 HP with ease. Kecleon also has the versatility to use special energy such as Double Colorless Energy and Twin Energy, decreasing the amount of energy attachments needed to attack from 3 to 2. The drawback of Kecleon is that it sometimes can be difficult to find the right type of energy at the right time, especially if the type of energy required to hit for weakness is prized. Additionally, Kecleon suffers drastically in the Dragon type matchup as Dragon type Pokemon typically don’t have any weakness. In this instance, it is better to rely on some of the other attackers because of the poor matchup.

Ho-Oh is another big basic attacker that has seen some play in other similar archetypes of the rainbow-colorless style decks. The advantage of Ho-Oh over some of the other more typical colorless attackers such as Lugia and Cyclizar is that it has 130 HP and its damage can scale based on how many different types of energy are attached. Additionally, Ho-Oh gives the deck some type coverage into the fighting matchup as it does not have fighting weakness, and instead has resistance to fighting. Ho-Oh is another good target for Mirage Gate, although it is not a good candidate for Double Colorless Energy as it only gains damage from basic energies.

Kangaskan is what I consider to be an absolute staple in colorless GLC. It is a solid basic attacker with 130 HP and a revenge style attack which can be powered up in a single turn with Double Colorless Energy. Kangaskhan is always a threat when it’s on your bench, and although it’s attack condition is somewhat situational, it can get you out of pinch and buy you some time while taking an easy knockout, or putting damage on the board. The biggest caveat to Kangaskhan is that it can get trapped in the active spot easily if your opponent chooses to gust it.

Finally we have Snorlax, I don’t think you can have a colorless list without Snorlax as it’s just too good. It has 150 HP and hits for 180 damage which OHKO’s most stage 2 Pokemon and many big basics even with a Bravery Charm attached. The obvious issue with Snorlax is that it falls asleep after you attack, and unless you get lucky with coin flips it usually remains stuck in the active spot the following turn. The deck is constructed to play around this, by having multiple cars with switching effects. Including Escape Rope, Bird Keeper, Guzma, and Scoop Up Net.

Support Pokemon

Now to switch over to the support Pokemon. The foundation of any good Pokemon deck starts with it’s ability to setup a strong board state with multiple ways to draw and search cards, and multiple attackers. In this deck like many other colorless decks, I chose to build around the new Fan Rotom with it’s amazing “Fan Call” ability. This ability will let you setup your entire board as soon as turn 1 and it can act as an attacker in the early game if needed.

Fan Rotom allows you to search you deck for 3 Pokemon with 100 HP or less. This means that it not only can search for basic Pokemon, it can search for evolution pokemon as well. With this in mind, I deviated from the traditional Bibarell, Oranguru, Skwovet line in favor of Dodrio, Cinccino, and Audino which all have under 100 HP. The other reason for this change is that in lost zone style decks, it is better to have more cards in your hand so that you can make informed decisions about which cards you choose to put in the lost zone. Essentially the more information you have about your deck, your prizes, and your board state will allow you to make the best decision when putting a card into the lost zone. With this package of support pokemon, it focuses on drawing multiple cards on top of your existing hand size, rather than shuffling them back into the deck and drawing a fresh set of cards like you do with Bibarell/Skwovet. 

Although very good in draw consistency, the Skwoevet/Oranguru/Bibarel line limits your hand size to a maximum of 5 cards. In my opinion this is suboptimal when trying to navigate decisions involving the lost zone mechanic. Additionally, Oranguru and Bibarel cannot be searched for with Fan Rotom’s ability “Fan Call” as they have greater than 100 HP.

Audino/Dodrio/Cinccino allow you to build a much larger hand size as you can draw up to 4 cards per turn on top of your existing hand. Additionally, they are all under 100 HP so they can be searched for using Fan Rotom or Level Ball with the exception of Dodrio. I find that this package of draw support pokemon is more consistent in what the deck wants to do which is build a large hand. These cards are also less likely to get trapped in the active spot as they only have a single retreat cost. Finally, Dodrio can also be an efficient attacker in the late game if needed.

Outside of the draw support Pokemon, I have also chosen to include the Pelliper from Paldea Evolved. With this selection, I took a page out of the Psychic Lost Zone deck with it’s similar cast of supporter searching cards in Meowstic and Banette.

A few other Pokemon I considered were Delcatty and Herdier. Both of them have similar abilities to the Pelipper and are under 100 HP which means they are searchable by Fan Rotom and Level Ball. In this deck, I found that both of these options were inferior to Pelipper as Pelipper gives you more versatility to search either the deck or the discard pile to retrieve a supporter card. Essentially Peliper is the equivalent of Meowstic and Bannette combined all in one card. Having the ability to cherry-pick a supporter card like Colress’s Experiment, Raihan, or Guzma out of the deck allows you to have exactly the card you need at the right moment in the game. 

Herdier is an interesting alternative, however it is reliant on VS seeker which makes the card less consistent than the other 2 options. The one cool thing about Herdier is that it does allow you to use a 2nd or 3rd Mirage Gate per game if played with Scoop Up Net to reset the “Treasure Hunt” ability. I would still like to test the usage of herdier in this deck, however I have found that it takes multiple turns to get to 7 cards in the lost zone for Mirage Gate and by that point in the game you don’t have enough turns or resources to effectively use Herdier to its full potential. Whereas Pelipper is always an active card when it’s in your hand and can be used at any point during the game for either setup or recovery.

Lost Zone Package

Unlike some other colorless builds which focus around special energy and fire energy in combination with Mela, this deck uses a lost zone package similar to that of Free Water or Lost Circle. Standard lost zone cards such as Colress Experiment, Lost Vacuum, and Lost Blender allow you to build your lost zone count up to 7 cards activating Mirage Gate. In addition to this standard lost zone package I have also included Lost City and Trumbeak. Trumbeak is the secret sauce of the deck, as it often is the 7th card you need to activate Mirage Gate. Also, the effect of the ability “Mountain Pass” is not for nothing. This ability gives you valuable information as to what your opponents top deck will be. Even better, you have the opportunity to mill an important supporter card from their deck. Keep in mind that this ability does not say reveal the top card of the deck, so technically only you are supposed to see the top card, not your opponent. If you use Lost Vacuum to get rid of your own stadium or tool card, then you can get to 7 cards in the lost zone by playing each card one time. 

2 (Lost Vacuum) + 2 (Lost Blender) + 2 (Colress’s Experiment) + 1 (Trumbeak) = 7

If one of the cards you need is prized, Colress’s Experiment can be recovered with either Pelipper or VS Seeker and used to gain an additional 2 cards in the lost zone.

Lost City is the final card in the lost zone engine. It is somewhat of a double edged sword and can be tricky to play around. Some people love this card and some hate it, however for the purposes of what this deck is trying to accomplish, I think it makes a lot of sense. The reasoning for playing Lost City is that there is little to no consequence when your Pokemon are knocked out. It adds to your lost zone count and enables Mirage Gate earlier in the game giving you more live cards in your deck. The great thing about Lost City is that it can also heavily disrupt your opponents game plan. If you're able to take out one of their key support Pokemon or main attacker, it makes it impossible for them to recover that card which can sometimes just win you the game. While you do need to be careful with Lost City, the deck has multiple attackers so it can afford to lose a few of them to the lost zone. If this does happen, then I will often rely on Dodrio in the late game as a high damage attacker with a low energy cost.

Stadiums

Artazon is another staple in GLC outside of decks that play Stormy Mountain and Brooklet Hill. It is a great setup card that can be found with either Colress’s Tenacity, or Guzmala & Hala. However, sometimes I forgo playing Artazon if I’m able to get Fan Rotom out turn 1. The problem with Artazon is that it also enables your opponent to get set up so timing on it’s usage is critical. One other note I’ll mention is that Artazon is a great target for Lost Vacuum, you can play Artazon and use it to set up you bench, and then send it to the lost zone with Lost Vacuum to prevent your opponent from having access to it during their turn.

Town store is one of my favorite stadium cards printed. I think this card is highly underrated for what it does. It is another way to search out important tools like U-Turn Board, damage modifiers like Fighting Fury Belt and Super Effective Glasses, and setup cards like ™ Turbo Energize. Any stadium card that lets you search your deck for a card is also great because it thins your deck, improving the probability of drawing into a specific card you need. The best line of play for the first turn of the game, is to play Colress’s Tenacity and search the deck for Capture Energy and Town Store. Then you play capture energy to search for Fan Rotom to setup your bench, and play Town Store to search the deck for ™ Turbo Energize. This will setup a full bench with multiple energy as early as turn 1.

I already mentioned Lost City so I will just touch on it briefly here. If you’re not a fan of this card, then I would at least recommend replacing it with another stadium. I find that having 3 stadiums in the deck works well with Fan Rotom as an early game attacker, as it needs to have a stadium card in play in order to attack. Also having a 3rd stadium card works well with Lost Vacuum and improves the consistency of this card to add 2 cards to the lost zone when played.

Pokemon Tools

I would love to be able to play more tool cards in the deck, especially with Town Store but unfortunately there are just other cards that are more important. A few other tools that I tried out were Luxurious Cape, Wishfull Baton, Float Stone, and ™ Crisis Punch in combination with Bunnelby (No longer in the deck).

Fighting Fury Belt or FFB for short, offers a lot from a tool card. The reason this card is so good is that it is effectively 2 cards in one. If you took Vitality Band and Bravery Charm and added them together, then you basically get FFB. This card fits perfectly in this deck as it allows 2 of the main attackers to hit for the the magic number in GLC 130 damage. Both Ho-Oh and Kanhaskahn can attack for 120 damage, just 10 short of knocking out most big basic pokemon. This allows both Pokemon to take knockouts easier, while also adding extra HP so they can take a hit.

Supereffective Glasses is a little more niche as Kecleon is the only Pokemon that can make use of this card. It is important to consider the right moment on when you use Supereffective glasses as you don’t want to waste the card if it isn’t needed to take a knockout. I always try and save this card in hand, and only play it when I know that I need the extra damage to take a knockout. If you attach the card too early, then it is vulnerable to get discarded by Field Blower which can be extremely inconvenient if you need the extra damage to take a knockout with Kecleon later in the game. It is relatively easy to find this card when you need it because of Town Store, Arven, and Guzma & Hala so I find that it is better to save it in hand especially if you know that your opponent’s field blower is still live.

U-Turn Board is a nice free retreat option that is not quite as good as Float Stone in some regards, but offers a consistent free pivot option every turn that cannot be discarded by Field Blower. The best candidate for this card is the Audino, as it allows you to promote Audino after your opponent has taken a knockout and use the “Hearing” ability to draw an extra card. There are times when I have wished that I had a Float Stone instead, especially if Snorlax is stuck in the active spot. With that said, Float Stone is probably the first card I would consider adding if I were to make a modification to the deck.

TM Turbo Energize is a great setup card and works well in this deck because of the amount of different types of basic energy. Being able to select which type of energy to attach is extremely important because of Kecleon’s ability. This is usually the optimal line of play if you can attack with ™ Turbo Energize on the first turn of the game. Otherwise it can be a great target for Lost Vacuum later in the game.

Recovery Options

Both Super Rod and Ordinary Rod can be used to recycle energy into the deck for late game Mirage Gate plays, while also giving you the ability to recycle attackers that may have been knocked out in previous turns. It is important to save at least one of these cards until later in the game when Mirage Gate is active.

Night Stretcher is very good because it gives you the flexibility to recover either an energy or Pokemon back to hand. This is a key card because it can allow you to recover a specific type of energy you may need for Kecleon in order to hit for weakness.

Special Charge seemed to make sense in this list because Double Colorless Energy and Twin Energy are both powerful cards. However, I do not find that the extra recovery is needed every game which puts this card in consideration for being cut.

Energy Acceleration

Crispin is a great addition to the deck as it allows you to select specify types of energy similar to Mirage Gate. This means that you can search out and attach the right type of energy needed for Kecleon to hit for weakness.

Raihan is another great option for energy acceleration but is a little more situational than Crispin. Prioritizing both of these cards in the mid-game can help chain attackers by setting up multiple energy on your board per turn.

Mirage Gate is the most powerful form of energy acceleration that the deck has to offer as it searches and attaches 2 different type of energy. Additionally, this is an item card which means that you can play a supporter card like Guzma on the same turn. Getting to 7 cards in the lost zone can take awhile, so it is usually a dead card for the first few turns of the game. Be careful not to discard it as it is usually worth waiting until later in the game to make a big play.

I like to think of Max Elixir as a pseudo Mirage Gate. It’s not nearly as strong of a card, but it is live 100% of the time and can get a critical extra energy attachment when it is needed the most. This card also works great later in the game in combination with Super Rod and Ordinary Rod to stack your deck with basic energy cards to improve the probability of hitting an energy with Max Elixir.

Setup Options

All three of these supporter cards are great for setup and can search out Fan Rotom and ™ Turbo Energize on the first turn of the game going 2nd. In combination with Artazon, Town Store, and Capture Energy, there is almost always a way to get your board setup, even if one of the other cards is prized. The redundancy in this ability to search for basic pokemon or tool cards through Artazon and Town Store adds an immense amount of consistency to the deck. In addition, Colress’s Tenacity and Guzma & Hala can be used to search for Double Colorless Energy when needed.

Switch and Gust

Bird Keeper is a phenomenal card and in my opinion necessary in this deck. The issue with Snorlax is that it falls asleep after attacking. That’s where Bird Keeper comes into play. It allows you to switch out Snorlax to remove the sleep effect and pivot into Audino to draw an additional card. This effectively turns Bird Keeper into a switch and draw 4 supporter which is great value while adding another pivot option to the deck for control matchups.

Scoop Up Net can be used as another switch card, or as a way to remove damage from your board or reset Pelipper to use its ability a second time. It’s an extremely versatile card that offers a lot of different lines of play depending on the state of the game.

Escape Rope and Guzma are the two gusting cards in the deck. These both offer an additional option to switch your active Pokemon as well which can be important if your opponent is trying to stall, or if Snorlax is asleep again. Use these cards in combination with Lost City to target specific Pokemon on your opponents bench to send to the lost zone.

Adding Consistency

This deck plays a lower supporter count than most other GLC decks in order to focus more on finding key supporters like Colress’s Experiment and Cripsin/Raihan. Each of these 3 cards offer and additional way to find support cards outside of using Pelipper’s “Hearsay” ability. Because the deck has only 8 supporter cards in it, the probability of finding the specific one you are looking for is higher with Random Receiver. These cards add consistency to the deck, but could potentially be cut in favor of a tech-style card. In my experience, I enjoy the consistency of these cards as they allow you to play the game. However, if I were to cut a card then Trainer’s Mail would probably be the first to go. I would definitely consider Trainer’s mail to be a flex spot in the deck list.

Pokemon Search

The Pokemon search options in this deck are pretty standard. The inclusion of Aratzon and Capture Energy turns Colress’s Tenacity and Guzma & Hala in to a Pokemon search option as well. I chose not to play Ball Guy in this list because of the lack of options for ball cards. I typically only play Ball Guy if I have 6 or more ball cards. I think that this package of search options gives the deck enough consistency, factoring in that you only need one of these to search for Fan Rotom which allows you to grab multiple basic and/or evolution Pokemon. One card that I wouldn’t mind adding is Timer Ball, but I don’t like the reliance on a coin flip for the effect of the card. Finding Fan Rotom on the first turn of the game is always going to be your main priority.

Basic Energy

Lastly we have the basic energy. This is a true rainbow deck as I’m playing one type of each energy giving Kecleon the ability to turn into any type outside of Fairy. Playing 1 type of each energy gives the most amount of versatility to Kecleon and Ho-Oh as they both need specific or different types of energy to maximize their attack damage. If the energy you need is prized or you are facing a dragon type matchup, then Kecleon becomes somewhat useless and you must rely on your other attackers to win the game and trade effectively.

Alternative Options and Tech Cards

I did try playing Fairy energy in combination with Diantha to recover Mirage Gate, but ultimately found that it was inconsistent and hard to pull off at the right time. It’s an interesting concept because you can turn Kecleon into a fairy type giving access to Diantha which is a very powerful support card. I would be interested to see someone else try this strategy out because it is a pretty spicy tech card in an already spicy list. If you are the type of person that loves the heat, then go for it!

I mentioned earlier in this article that I wouldn’t mind having a few more tool cards to use with Town Store. Float Stone is probably the first card that I would choose to add to the deck as it gives you another way to retreat either Audino or Snorlax when they are stuck in the active. Having some redundancy between U-Turn Board and Float Stone would add greater consistency to the deck.

Luxurious Cape is a good card, but I don’t like giving my opponent the ability to take a 2 prize turn.

Building on the Tag Team package with Guzma & Hala already in the deck makes a lot of sense. Tag call would improve the consistency of the deck by giving it another option to search for supporter cards. Additionally Cynthia & Caitlin can be used to recover key supporter cards like Colress’s Experiment. Trainer’s Mail would be the first card I would cut for Tag Call, the tougher decision would be what to cut in place of Cynthia & Caitlin. Overall these are both very good cards that may eventually find their way back into the deck.

Farfetch’d in combination with Jet Energy improves the consistency of using ™ Turbo Energize on the first turn of the game. I tested these two cards with each other and it worked pretty well. You can play Colress’s Tenacity and search for Artazon and Jet Energy, use Artazon to get Fan Rotom, and use “Fan Call” to search for Farfetch’d. Then play down Farfetch’d and use its “Impromptu Carrier” ability to search the deck for ™ Turbo Energize. Then you attach the Jet Energy to Farfetch’d to switch it into the active so it can attack. Overall it's not a bad turn 1 combo, however I found that you can essentially do the same thing with Town Store and Capture energy which negates the need for farfetch’d and saves 1 spot in the deck for a different card.

Both Smeargle and Rainbow Brush seem like they would be a perfect fit in a rainbow energy style deck. However, I found that these two cards really only have an interaction with Kecleon and none of the other attackers in the deck. Even without these cards, you can usually find the right type of energy you are looking for through Raihan, Crispin, Mirage Gate, or ™ Turbo Energize. If I had to pick one of these cards to include it would be the Rainbow Brush. Smeargle limits your bench space and is an easy target for your opponent in spread matchups

Bunnelby is a strong card in some situations, but can be extremely situational. It is a great card the first turn of the game with ™ Turbo Energize, or on the last turn of the game with ™ Crisis Punch. Adding these two cards would give the deck an option to take a 2 prize turn at the end of the game. However, it does not happen as often as you might think, and therefore I cut these two cards in favor of other selections that offered greater consistency to the deck overall.

Amazing Rare Rayquaza was one of the first attackers that I considered when creating the deck, and believe me I still want to be able to play this card. With the introduction of Powerglass I thought that it might be possible to setup Raquaza and attack with it multiple turns in a row by recovering the energy. Unfortunately the specific energy cost of its attack makes it difficult to setup up consistently. It also only has 120 HP compared to something like Ho-Oh which has 130 HP and can use any type of basic energy to attack.

In games where you are unable to get Fan Rotom setup on turn 1, you can run into somewhat of a slow start. Adding additional Pokemon search options like Timer Ball and Winona would help alleviate some of the dependency on Fan Rotom. I’m just not crazy about the coin flip effect on Timer Ball, and Winona is usually a dead card later in the game. If you find that the deck is lacking consistency in setting up, then I would recommend trying out one of these cards. 

The deck currently does not contain any method of hand disruption which is something that would be nice to have in certain circumstances. For the reasoning I mentioned behind not playing the Bibarel/Skwovet line, I did not want to play Marnie/Iono/N as it limits your hand size. This deck plays the best when you are able to build up a big hand and have multiple different lines of play when navigating lost zone decisions. With respect to this, I would say that either Red Card or Reset Stamp would be a better alternative for hand disruption as it does not affect your hand size.

Marnie’s Pride is somewhat of an underrated card in my opinion. The reason for this consideration is that colorless decks can have trouble chaining attackers. Marnie’s Pride is like having a 3rd Raihan or Crispin in the deck which adds consistency in accelerating energy throughout the game. It also works well with Kecleon to recover the specific energy you need to hit for weakness if it was discarded in a turn prior. Rapid Strike Energy also works well with Kecleon however none of the other Pokemon can utilize it so it is a bit more situational depending on your board state.

Cyllene is the final card I’ll mention. It’s yet another way to recover Mirage Gate for a 2nd use. I think this card is generally more effective than something like Herdier as it takes up 1 less spot in the deck, and can achieve a similar effect. The potential of having access to a 2nd Mirage Gate is a big deal, however most of the time this happens very late in the game. I found that prioritizing setup cards over item recovery was more consistent overall. If you find yourself wanting a 2nd Mirage Gate, try out one of these options.

In Conclusion

This is what I would consider to be the core cards of the deck. The last 10 spots could be considered flexible based on matchup and the current meta, or to favor greater consistency in draw power or energy acceleration.

Core Cards

Flex Cards