GLC Rain Dance Water Deck

Hello trainers! Thanks for stopping in to learn about Bcevasco's tournament-winning water list! He has given us his thoughts on the deck and the list itself below. Learn more about the deck that went 6-0 in the first leaderboard tournament of Season 1.

Deck Playing Philosophy

Playing Rain Dance Water is all about setting up energy acceleration. As long as it has energy flowing, water gets to take advantage of some of the beefiest and hardest hitting attackers in the format. Fortunately, Water is also one of the GLC champions of consistency thanks to the Shady Dealings Inteleon line, Abyssal Hand Octillery, and Alolan Vulpix. This list leans into the setup and consistency by playing Brigette, Gloria, Ball Guy, and Irida. You generally prioritize setting up Sobble, Remoraid, and either Snom or Squirtle, while the Staryu and basic attackers can afford to come down a little later. In the midgame, be thoughtful about which attackers you promote as Lapras and Wailord can reach for the big KOs, but Inteleon and Wishiwashi cannot. Water typically just looks for the KO on the active Pokémon while using Hex Maniac to disrupt the support pokemon. Boss’ Orders and Guzma are frequently used to allow Inteleon and Wishiwashi to take clean KOs on lower HP Pokémon. If you can help it, saving Inteleon’s double search for VS Seeker plus one of Boss, Guzma, Hex Maniac, or Nessa can help take over the prize trade. As a final tip, when you have Starmie going, don’t be afraid to Scoop Up Net or hard retreat your damaged Wishiwashi or Wailord to deny your opponent an easy prize.

Card Highlights

This list has the latest technology from the big man Andrew Mahone himself, and also the Irida that he will never play. Speaking of the Irida, while including it in a water deck is far from groundbreaking, it notably gives the deck a Drizzile searchable way to get Blastoise plus Rare Candy which can lead to some explosive starts.

Also far from groundbreaking, I am a huge fan of playing Ball Guy and Hisuian Heavy Ball, especially in a setup focused deck like Rain Dance. It reduces how many games you lose to bad prize cards, it’s always burnable to thin the hand for Octillery, and Starmie does a good job of thinning our cards in the mid and late game anyway.

The only Stadium in the deck is a Chaotic Swell. While Swell is generally disruptive against decks with important stadiums like Metal, Psychic, or Dragon, its primary purpose is to protect our bench from Parallel City, one of the best disruptive cards in the format against water.

Matchups and Tricky Scenarios

While I think water has some game in every matchup thanks to its powerful and consistent primary game plan it will struggle against Lightning’s ability to do bench damage and hit for weakness as well as the ability locking Pokémon of Dark, Psychic, and Colorless. Against Lightning you’ll have to lean on Hex Maniac to slow them down and use Boss or Guzma on the Raikou if given the opportunity. Making a space in the list for Manaphy BRS can help, but it can be tricky to find a spot on the bench for it. Against early game ability lock the best bet is to power up Wishiwashi, usually by manually attaching, but sometimes you can get a Frosmoth set up before you get locked, or you can make a turn to accelerate energy with Boss or Guzma. Against mid to late game ability lock like Slaking (or Hex Maniac) you’ll want to focus on getting a backup attacker ready. As an additional trick against Dark you can use Hex Maniac to make Weavile’s Evil Admonition attack do no damage for a turn.

To the Water Trainers out there, good luck! May your opening hands contain Brigette and your benches remain undisrupted.

##Pokémon - 17

• 1 Alolan Vulpix GRI 21
• 1 Lapras TEU 31
• 1 Remoraid BST 36
• 1 Snom SSH 63
• 1 Sobble CRE 41
• 1 Squirtle BCR 29
• 1 Staryu BKP 25
• 1 Wailmer VIV 31
• 1 Wishiwashi CEC 62
• 1 Drizzile SSH 56
• 1 Frosmoth SSH 64
• 1 Octillery BKT 33
• 1 Starmie EVO 31
• 1 Wailord VIV 32
• 1 Wartortle UNB 34
• 1 Blastoise BCR 31
• 1 Inteleon SSH 58

##Trainer Cards - 32

• 1 Nessa VIV 157
• 1 Ball Guy SHF 57
• 1 Rescue Stretcher GRI 130
• 1 Evolution Incense SSH 163
• 1 Gloria BRS 141
• 1 Professor's Letter BKT 146
• 1 Tate & Liza CES 148
• 1 Chaotic Swell CEC 187
• 1 Nest Ball SUM 123
• 1 Brigette BKT 134
• 1 Evosoda XY 116
• 1 Rare Candy SSH 180
• 1 Cynthia UPR 119
• 1 Teammates PRC 141
• 1 Boss's Orders RCL 189
• 1 Field Blower GRI 125
• 1 Guzma BUS 115
• 1 Professor Juniper DEX 98
• 1 Colress PLS 118
• 1 Scoop Up Net RCL 165
• 1 Level Ball AOR 76
• 1 Ultra Ball SUM 135
• 1 N FCO 105
• 1 Hex Maniac AOR 75
• 1 Hisuian Heavy Ball ASR 146
• 1 Float Stone BKT 137
• 1 Marnie SSH 169
• 1 Irida ASR 147
• 1 Quick Ball SSH 216
• 1 Dive Ball PRC 125
• 1 Capacious Bucket RCL 156
• 1 VS Seeker PHF 109

##Energy - 11

• 1 Splash Energy BKP 113
• 10 Water Energy HS 117

Total Cards - 60