GLC Water Deck

Hello gym leaders! Allow me to reintroduce to you, one of the very best GLC players, JeoshuaObladi! He has won numerous tournaments, and at least two different tournaments with this deck, and is one of the most creative deck builders around. Today, he shares with us his unique take on water and rapid strike Pokémon with a Wishiwashi and Rapid Strike Starmie list.

History of the Deck

I’m really glad to talk about this archetype. Its been a pleasure to watch the archetype grow during this year. The first build was from August 2021. It wasn't bad, but it gains a lot with the Fusion Strike and Brilliant Stars sets with cards like Rapid Strike Lapras, Starmie and Cloyster, emergency surfacing Empoleon and Manaphy (giving you a more solid matchup specially against lighting).

General Setup

The deck consists in setting up your energy acceleration Pokémon (deluge Blastoise and rain dance Frosmoth) in order to spam your attackers without a break. Lapras or Cloyster usually are your best choice for early game. They put a lot of pressure on late game threats, or with the 100 snipe from Lapras, OHKO important support mons on your opponent’s field like Grotle, Thwackey and all the 90 HP support Pokémon that GLC decks play in order to be consistent (Octillery, Drizzile, dragon Gabite and Dragonair, just for a few examples).

Early Game

This is your early gameplay strategy: set up your board and consistency engine (Octillery, Frosmoth) and spam Lapras and Cloyster. Cheeky knockouts with AT Articuno early could be worth, but usually you go safe with it after a proper “set up math” strategy.

Mid to Late Game

After this and with a conservative use of your cards, especially superior energy retrieval, Nessa and Pal Pad (these are the most important cards of the list), you can make really powerful plays with Starmie and Wishiwashi. Starmie is a star, yeah everybody can see it, but I mean it's literally a broken card. A good Nessa + superior retrieval is a deadly play for everything in format if you know what to target. She can clean an entire squad of support Pokémon and even sets up math on bigger Pokémon. Usually I can spread between 150-240 damage with proper moves. It's really a strong card.

Wishiwashi instead, is your heavy hitter and tanky Pokémon. Weak to ability lock but still really powerful, can OHKO everything. Just for the flex and an example, I was able to one-shot a Lost Origin Machamp (300 HP) in a table match IRL. You can recover it with Nessa and Super Rod, and thanks to Pal Pad and VS Seeker (recovering Nessa) you can have a lot of little fish that go big.

Unique Cards and Combos

I can talk about some unique cards and even some cool plays that you can do all the game; could be early or late, depending on timing. So let’s talk about Archies, Peony and some cool and strong combos. Drizzile and Inteleon are very useful cards to set your board and consistency, but in this list with small hands you can have some magic tricks. Having a Dive Ball, Evolution Incense, or Ultra Ball means you have a guaranteed Empoleon thanks to Drizzle for Peony, but be sure you don’t discard the important cards we talked before (Pal Pad/Nessa/VS Seeker/Superior Energy Retrieval). You can lose one of those, but be aware of what you do and calculate well against who you are up against and what u need to win. With the same scenario of a small hand, Inteleon allows Archies plays if you really need to. Maybe you had a slow start, but then from nowhere you could have a Blastoise in play and recover from a slow start immediately. Ball guy also with small hands is a guaranteed Empoleon. Having a 160 HP Pokémon that snipes for 60 on turn 1 or 2 its really strong in this format. Empoleon also can’t be stopped by a card like Galarian Weezing since he can’t affect the discard pile. It's a strong penguin in that match up that could be your worst because of ability lock. You can target an early Liepard or Zorua or putting pressure on the toxic gentleman.

Wrapping Up

What more can I say? Take care of your switching cards because Blastoise has a heavy retreat. Conserve your Float Stone from Field Blower and Guzma or Tate and Liza and remember, you have lot of ways to recover your supporters. Usually Pal Pad is for Nessa, Guzma or Tate and Liza. I love this deck, and I hope you can enjoy it like I do. I also hope I wrote this properly and in a fun way with my limiting language barrier.

Deck List

##Pokémon - 19

• 1 Articuno ROS 17
• 1 Lapras FST 54
• 1 Manaphy BRS 41
• 1 Remoraid BST 36
• 1 Shellder FST 50
• 1 Snom SHF 29
• 1 Sobble CRE 41
• 1 Squirtle BCR 29
• 1 Staryu BKP 25
• 1 Wishiwashi EVS 46
• 1 Cloyster FST 51
• 1 Drizzile SSH 56
• 1 Frosmoth SHF 30
• 1 Octillery BKT 33
• 1 Starmie FST 53
• 1 Wartortle UNB 34
• 1 Blastoise BCR 31
• 1 Empoleon BRS 37
• 1 Inteleon SSH 58

##Trainer Cards - 30

• 1 Marnie SSH 169
• 1 Professor Sycamore BKP 107
• 1 Nessa VIV 157
• 1 Tate & Liza CES 148
• 1 N FCO 105
• 1 Super Rod BKT 149
• 1 Brooklet Hill GRI 120
• 1 Evolution Incense SSH 163
• 1 Pal Pad SSH 172
• 1 Peonia CRE 149
• 1 Colress PLS 118
• 1 Professor's Letter BKT 146
• 1 Nest Ball SUM 123
• 1 Teammates PRC 141
• 1 Level Ball BST 129
• 1 VS Seeker PHF 109
• 1 Viridian Forest TEU 156
• 1 Ultra Ball SUM 135
• 1 Peony CRE 150
• 1 Hisuian Heavy Ball ASR 146
• 1 Float Stone BKT 137
• 1 Quick Ball FST 237
• 1 Dive Ball PRC 125
• 1 Guzma BUS 115
• 1 Rare Candy PGO 69
• 1 Ball Guy SHF 57
• 1 Archie's Ace in the Hole PRC 124
• 1 Superior Energy Retrieval PLF 103
• 1 Guzma & Hala CEC 193
• 1 Trainers' Mail ROS 92

##Energy - 11

• 1 Capture Energy RCL 171
• 9 Water Energy Energy 3
• 1 Rapid Strike Energy BST 140

Total Cards - 60