Salamence: Actually Competitive?

With all of the talk lately about the impact of Salamence LV.X on Salamence decks, and whether or not they are now a viable contender, I thought I would write an article to give my two cents on the issue.

This article will include:

  1. A history of my involvement with the trading card game
  2. A quick look at the main cards
  3. Decklists/Strategy

1. First, a quick history of my involvement with the game. I originally started playing the Pokémon Trading Card game when it was first released and Pokémon hysteria was at its peak. I played tournaments and leagues for about two years, then gave it all up during my early teens when image meant more than having a good time. Flash forward close to ten years and I’m just out of college. My buddies have recently started playing Pokémon and it’s peaked my interested. Long story short, they tossed some Energy, a T/S/S line, and the Salamence SW Evolution at me and I was hooked.

2. Now lets take a look at the main cards in the deck.

Salamence LV.X Arceus AR 98 Salamence Stormfront SF 24

Bagon Secret Wonders SW 76

Memory Berry Platinum PL 110 Pokemon Card

Taking a quick look at these cards you see that you have a high HP Colorless Pokémon, powerful attacks with a discard, a high Retreat Cost, the possibility to take multiple Prize cards for one Knock Out, and a relatively cheap “Rage” attack using Memory Berry. This is a high risk/cost, high reward deck and can be made to payoff greatly.

3. I’ve been playing Salamence variants since I got back into Pokémon, but heavily over the past 4 months or so. I was highly anticipating the LV.X’s release and had built a version to run without it, but also had one ready to go weeks before, simply needing to slide a Level X into a sleeve. The version I was running without the LV.X took a lot of play testing to make competitive, but started to be competitive around the time Fall 09 Battle Roads began. I played it in a few leagues as well as some local Level X tournaments and never went worse than 3-2. I actually pulled off a win at the one local tournament, netting myself a few boosters and a DP Empoleon LV.X for the binder.

The list I was running looked like this:

Pokémon: 18
4 Bagon SW
3 Shelgon ( SW or SF)
1 Salamence SW
3 Salamence SF
2 Baltoy (GE or SV)
2 Claydol GE
1 Unown G GE
1 Azelf LA
1 Chatot MD
T/S/S: 27
4 PlusPower
3 Team Galactic Wager
3 Professor Oak’s Visit
1 Night Maintenance
3 Warp Point
1 Luxury Ball
3 Roseanne’s Research
3 Rare Candy
1 Broken Time-Space
3 Memory Berry
Energy: 15
9 R
6 W

It was relatively consistent, but the T/S/S line was off and it was under tech’d . The strategy of this deck was to get a turn two Salamence hitting for 50 with two Energies or 50 for one R Energy, possibly 120 for 1 R Energy and 1 W Energy, and discarding with the “Battle Rush” Poké-Body engaged. With 140 HP you could do this for some time, while charging up a second Salamence, either SF version if “Battle Rush” was working or the SW version to snipe the Bench.

Once your Active Salamence had some damage on it you could attach a Memory Berry and “Rage” for 10+ damage for 2 Energy or for free with “Battle Rush” engaged. It was a relatively straightforward deck. PlusPowers could be used early to give you that extra damage to Knock Out 60 hp Basics, or anytime to get to the magic numbers of 130 or 140 damage, when facing high HP Pokémon. This deck worked very well against most other Stage 2 deck’s and gave you close to an even shot at Beedrill, Gyarados, and Gengar.

It struggled, though, against SP variants that hindered it’s set-up, but would run through others which focused on spread or simply could not slow down its set-up. I knew this deck was nowhere near perfected, but with the LV.X arriving in less than a month, I shifted my attention to a decklist built around Salamence LV.X and its “Double Fall” Poké-Power.

The original list I created again was relatively consistent, but being straight Salamence lacked any real tricks to help swing bad matchups my way. With that in mind, I did my most recent tweaking and this is my current decklist. This list, as you will see, is what I’ve come to see as a solid core for any Stormfront based Salamence Deck, and can be tech’d for your meta or playing style relatively easily. I have also built an Arceus Salamence deck based on Energy acceleration, however, I feel in the current format SF Salamence is the best play.

My list is as follows (my core cards highlighted in bold, the rest could potentially be switched for similar cards or a different strategy.:

Pokémon: 20
4 Bagon SW
2 Shelgon (SW or SF)
2 Salamence SF
1 Salamence SW
1 Salamence LV.X AOA
1 Tech stage 2
1 Tech Basic
2 Baltoy (SV or GE)
2 Claydol GE
1 Azelf LA
1 Uxie LA
1 Unown G GE
1 Chatot MD
T/S/S: 26
1 Luxury Ball
1 Premier Ball
1 Night Maintenance
1 Pokémon Rescue
1 VS Seeker
3 Roseanne’s Research
3 Bebe’s Search
4 Looker’s Investigation
2 Memory Berry
3 Warp Point
2 Broken Time Space
4 Rare Candy
Energy: 14
8 R
6 W

Salamence Secret Wonders SW 18I’ll start at the bottom and work my way up the list, with an explanation for each card. Starting with the Energy, I have tried between 12-16 energy and settled in the middle for most consistency. This leaves me with rarely missing an Energy drop, but also not having more than one or two Energy clogging up my hand. I run more R Energy than W Energy because you need that R Energy first for “Combustion” and can usually wait, if you need to, for that W Energy to show. I’m not a fan of running Call Energy in this deck, but it’s really a personal preference. I’ve tried it and it gives more consistent starts, but it also often leaves you missing the right combination of Energy, to use the moves you need to use, at the right times.

Moving on to the Trainers/Supporters/Stadiums line, you start off with the search staples Bebe’s Search and Roseanne’s Research. I run 3 and 3 because I usually get what I need when I need it and VS Seeker can provide a fourth of either, while freeing up a space in the deck. Next are 4 Rare Candy, which are a necessity in any Stage 2 deck, so that you can get Salamence out in a timely fashion.

Nidoqueen Rising Rivals RR 30 Pokemon CardThe Memory Berry are there so that you can “Rage” with Salamence using Bagon SW. This can be epic with 140-160 HP to work with, and also can surprise some people after discarding Energies, since it only costs two C Energy, or can be done for free with “Battle Rush” engaged. Finally the real core to using Salamence LV.X is the Pokémon search/recycle trainer engine of Night Maintenance, Pokémon Rescue, Premier Ball, and Luxury Ball. These cards allow you to often use Salamence LV.X on all three of your Salamence and Knock Out only three Pokémon for the win. That essentially is the real strategy of the deck, take a quick double prize and then continue to take 2 Prizes for every one your opponent takes.

Finally, the core Pokémon line is Salamence LV.X from Arceus, 2 Salamence SF, 1 Salamence SW, Shelgon (SW or SF), Bagon SW, 1 Tech Stage 2, 1 Tech Basic, Claydol GE, and Azelf LA. The Salamence line is the meat of the deck. SF Salamence can hit big and quickly to the Active, and SW Salamence can take care of some big sniping. The LV.X allows you to often take double prizes, to cut the Energy discard amount, and boosts HP to a healthy 160. However, watch out for that double colorless weakness.

Nidoking Rising Rivals RR 29 Pokemon CardClaydol is your draw/cycle engine, while Azelf helps retrieve important prized cards. Finally there is room in this deck for one 1-0-1 tech line. This can be used, however you see fit, to give you an advantage in your metagame. A few of note are: Nidoqueen from Rising Rivals can be used to heal in between turns, Nidoking from RR can stack damage on your opponent when they attack your Active, allowing you to 1HKO just about anything with “Steam Twister”. Exploud Supreme Victors can remove all of your Pokémon’s weakness, and finally Dusknoir from DP can be used to shrink your opponent’s Bench. If played at the right moment, it can cripple their set-up or shuffle away a back-up hitter.

Dusknoir Diamond Pearl DP 2 Pokemon CardThe rest of the cards in this deck can potentially be changed around. Most of them are tech’d in as hand refresh cards, such as Chatot MD and potentially Looker’s Investigation, or serve a dedicated role like Looker’s Investigation’s role in checking your opponent’s hand if they are running SP, to try and make sure they do not have a “Power Spray” to stop “Double Take”. These cards are essentially flexible spots to shape the deck to your style.

This essentially has been the deck that has worked out very well for me. It’s consistent, powerful, and has some tricks up its sleeve. With the added advantages of the Level X. Salamence, it may be a powerhouse ready for the big stage. No matter what its eventual role in the metagame, it definitely is a deck worth playing around with and giving a shot.

Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed and maybe I swayed you to take a look at Salamence!

Samson Gausch

Reader Interactions

89 replies

  1. Soul

    What’s Nidoking for, I don’t see any reasons for it, 2 damage aren’t that good. Also, 4 Looker’s? The Memory Berry is nice though, I played it before and it did well.

  2. Power Swing

    Great article. I currently think saly won’t be to strong with the flygon heavy metagame that were in. If flygon wernt so popular I deffinintly think saly would do terrefic.

  3. Power Swing

    Great article. I currently think saly won’t be to strong with the flygon heavy metagame that were in. If flygon wernt so popular I deffinintly think saly would do terrefic.

  4. Colin Peterik

    Yeah, not only does Flygon own Sally, but Ditto destroys her as well. Ditto drop. Lucians. Bam!

  5. Colin Peterik

    Not to say that she isn’t playable. And the Lv.X certainly added alot to the deck. Good article.

  6. Soul

    What’s Nidoking for, I don’t see any reasons for it, 2 damage aren’t that good. Also, 4 Looker’s? The Memory Berry is nice though, I played it before and it did well.

  7. Adam Capriola

    Nice article Samson!

    I think that using Memory Berry with Salamence is a great idea, especially in combination with Salamence SF, so you can do Rage for 0 Energies.

    I would take the Lookers out for Poke Drawer and make room for 2 Cynthia also.

    Lastly, why aren’t you using Call Energy??? I posted an article about why it’s imperative that everyone use 4 Call Energy and then I got a bunch of article submissions without Calls!

    You gotta be playing 3-4 Call Energy, there is no reason not to.

    • gelio the white  → Adam

      Since you often attack with the SF pokebody you will only clutter the energies in play by playing call. And since it already needs two different types of energy to attack it is better not to play it.

  8. Drew Stillwell

    You’d think the salamence would hinder flygon more than flygon is good against salamence, since a T2 Sally is quite possible, and battle rush is easily activated for an easy 120+10 (pluspower/crobat G) knock-out on flygon.

    • xFR3AKx  → Drew

      I was just thinking that as well. Sally is faster than Flygon as soon as the ol’ Fly comes into play. No to mention he hits harder……a lot harder.

      A non lv.X Sally can survive a hit from the Fly without a Plus Power/ Crobat drop, but not vice versa.

      We have a kid who has been messing with Sally for about 2 months now (this predates Arceus, obviously) and he has yet to loose to a Flygon variant.

  9. Ben

    One thing I noticed about all the Salamence is that they all require you to discard energies which is especially frustrating.

    • Drew Stillwell  → Ben

      yes, but ideally you are only using the discarding attacks sparingly for those big OHKO’s and (hopefully) gaining two prizes from it.

      50 for two from a big HP monster isn’t bad either, and it’s not THAT hard to get the energies when you need them.

      If you are really worried about energies, try teching in something like starmie RR that gets you your waters back from the discard to your hand.

  10. One thing I noticed about all the Salamence is that they all require you to discard energies which is especially frustrating.

    • Drew Stillwell  → Ben

      yes, but ideally you are only using the discarding attacks sparingly for those big OHKO’s and (hopefully) gaining two prizes from it.

      50 for two from a big HP monster isn’t bad either, and it’s not THAT hard to get the energies when you need them.

      If you are really worried about energies, try teching in something like starmie RR that gets you your waters back from the discard to your hand.

  11. SMGausch

    Hey guys thanks for the comments, just saw this got posted and thought I should respond to some of the comments. Looking at the article it looks like a few things got lost in translation(the formatting got messed up when I submitted it and I appreciate whoever took the time to get this up). The list on here is a bit different from the one I’m currently running. I dropped the VS Seeker for another Bebe’s as it was the only thing I ever found myself using. I also dropped two fire and two water energy for four calls, t2 claydol like every game! Finally I’m only running 2 lookers not four and they serve the same purpose as cynthia’s feeling would. I just prefer 5 cards everytime I need it instead of 4 or 8 conditionally. With the two additonal spots freed up by dropping those lookers I’ll add in one Lucian’s assignment to help conserve energy and either a third memory berry or second unown g depending on the meta. Also the stage two tech’s I propose were just ideas I run a 1-0-1 Dusknoir DP. This helps me swing unfavorable match-ups like Sp, Beedrill, and Gengar to my favor. You can ask my buddies I play test with weekly how much of an effect those two cards can have.

    Finally flygon is not a problem for this deck you one shot them and they two shot you, you take two prizes to their one. Flygon lock can be annoying, but that’s why I run three switching cards. Tested a bit against a flygon lock last night actually won 3 0f 3 with sally while it beat up on Gallade/Gardy and Gengar a few games. *And I know that short session does not constitute heavy testing, but I have played this deck extensively over the past few months. If you live in the South Eastern Pa area you’ll probably see it next few weekends at .

    • ctaylor33  → SMGausch

      Hey Sam! It’s me, Christian, from leagues. Great article! I have been playing this deck under Sam’s guidance for a few weeks now and am very pleased with it. I am new to Pokemon so I am probably not using the deck as effectively as Sam, but it is definitely fun to play.

      See you Saturday!

  12. Colin Peterik

    Yeah, not only does Flygon own Sally, but Ditto destroys her as well. Ditto drop. Lucians. Bam!

  13. Colin Peterik

    Not to say that she isn’t playable. And the Lv.X certainly added alot to the deck. Good article.

  14. Rawreth

    Great article, very influential. Makes me want to play Salamence myself.

  15. Rawreth

    Great article, very influential. Makes me want to play Salamence myself.

  16. Adam Capriola

    Nice article Samson!

    I think that using Memory Berry with Salamence is a great idea, especially in combination with Salamence SF, so you can do Rage for 0 Energies.

    I would take the Lookers out for Poke Drawer and make room for 2 Cynthia also.

    Lastly, why aren’t you using Call Energy??? I posted an article about why it’s imperative that everyone use 4 Call Energy and then I got a bunch of article submissions without Calls!

    You gotta be playing 3-4 Call Energy, there is no reason not to.

    • gelio the white  → Adam

      Since you often attack with the SF pokebody you will only clutter the energies in play by playing call. And since it already needs two different types of energy to attack it is better not to play it.

  17. Drew Stillwell

    You’d think the salamence would hinder flygon more than flygon is good against salamence, since a T2 Sally is quite possible, and battle rush is easily activated for an easy 120+10 (pluspower/crobat G) knock-out on flygon.

    • xFR3AKx  → Drew

      I was just thinking that as well. Sally is faster than Flygon as soon as the ol’ Fly comes into play. No to mention he hits harder……a lot harder.

      A non lv.X Sally can survive a hit from the Fly without a Plus Power/ Crobat drop, but not vice versa.

      We have a kid who has been messing with Sally for about 2 months now (this predates Arceus, obviously) and he has yet to loose to a Flygon variant.

  18. SMGausch

    Hey guys thanks for the comments, just saw this got posted and thought I should respond to some of the comments. Looking at the article it looks like a few things got lost in translation(the formatting got messed up when I submitted it and I appreciate whoever took the time to get this up). The list on here is a bit different from the one I’m currently running. I dropped the VS Seeker for another Bebe’s as it was the only thing I ever found myself using. I also dropped two fire and two water energy for four calls, t2 claydol like every game! Finally I’m only running 2 lookers not four and they serve the same purpose as cynthia’s feeling would. I just prefer 5 cards everytime I need it instead of 4 or 8 conditionally. With the two additonal spots freed up by dropping those lookers I’ll add in one Lucian’s assignment to help conserve energy and either a third memory berry or second unown g depending on the meta. Also the stage two tech’s I propose were just ideas I run a 1-0-1 Dusknoir DP. This helps me swing unfavorable match-ups like Sp, Beedrill, and Gengar to my favor. You can ask my buddies I play test with weekly how much of an effect those two cards can have.

    Finally flygon is not a problem for this deck you one shot them and they two shot you, you take two prizes to their one. Flygon lock can be annoying, but that’s why I run three switching cards. Tested a bit against a flygon lock last night actually won 3 0f 3 with sally while it beat up on Gallade/Gardy and Gengar a few games. *And I know that short session does not constitute heavy testing, but I have played this deck extensively over the past few months. If you live in the South Eastern Pa area you’ll probably see it next few weekends at .

    • ctaylor33  → SMGausch

      Hey Sam! It’s me, Christian, from leagues. Great article! I have been playing this deck under Sam’s guidance for a few weeks now and am very pleased with it. I am new to Pokemon so I am probably not using the deck as effectively as Sam, but it is definitely fun to play.

      See you Saturday!

  19. bendingspoons1

    Salamence’s attacks are extremely strong and although you have to “wait” until your opponent attacks first with their attacker, you can immediately respond to ko. I agree sam, this deck needs to focus on the memory berry combo to to do protect charge/rage in between energy attachments. I think you should consider 2 crobat G and 2 poketurn because it would be extremely effective at hitting 130 damage or any increment that you would need more damage to ko things.

  20. bendingspoons1

    Salamence’s attacks are extremely strong and although you have to “wait” until your opponent attacks first with their attacker, you can immediately respond to ko. I agree sam, this deck needs to focus on the memory berry combo to to do protect charge/rage in between energy attachments. I think you should consider 2 crobat G and 2 poketurn because it would be extremely effective at hitting 130 damage or any increment that you would need more damage to ko things.

  21. alex d

    Someone posted this story on TeamHatter:
    “Beedrill, up on me with all 6 of my prizes left to take to his 1. His Benched bee has 120 damage on it(Expert belt) and his active has 80 on it(Expert belt). We’re both on the bubble in the last round of an 80$ cash tourney.

    I have a salamence with an energy on it after he knocks out my last (secret card). I top accelerator and hit the fire energy. I roseanne and attach the water energy. I premier ball for Sally X and realize that something amazing has just happened. I level up, activate double fall and attack with shoot through, Knocking out the active, and taking 3 prizes, followed by the benched bee, also knocking it out and taking 3 more prizes. He just looks at me, looks down at sally X, looks back up, and says “Wow, **** this game” and walks off. Fun stuff.”

    • ctaylor33  → alex

      You can only use Sally X to take two prize cards when you first play him from your hand to level up Sally. For you to have taken the other three prize cards, Sally X would have had to have been KO’d and then retrieved from the discard pile and then used to level up another Sally. You should have lost this battle; you used Sally X’s power incorrectly. I did the same thing a handful of times until someone pointed out that I was using the card wrong.

  22. Power Swing

    Actually he used the power correctly, if each bee he hit had an expert belt attached he takes an extra prize. He hit both on one turn with shoot through.

  23. Power Swing

    Actually he used the power correctly, if each bee he hit had an expert belt attached he takes an extra prize. He hit both on one turn with shoot through.

  24. ctaylor33

    My bad. I am not familiar with shoot through. I will have to look it up.

  25. ctaylor33

    My bad. I am not familiar with shoot through. I will have to look it up.

  26. alex d

    Someone posted this story on TeamHatter:
    “Beedrill, up on me with all 6 of my prizes left to take to his 1. His Benched bee has 120 damage on it(Expert belt) and his active has 80 on it(Expert belt). We’re both on the bubble in the last round of an 80$ cash tourney.

    I have a salamence with an energy on it after he knocks out my last (secret card). I top accelerator and hit the fire energy. I roseanne and attach the water energy. I premier ball for Sally X and realize that something amazing has just happened. I level up, activate double fall and attack with shoot through, Knocking out the active, and taking 3 prizes, followed by the benched bee, also knocking it out and taking 3 more prizes. He just looks at me, looks down at sally X, looks back up, and says “Wow, **** this game” and walks off. Fun stuff.”

    • ctaylor33  → alex

      You can only use Sally X to take two prize cards when you first play him from your hand to level up Sally. For you to have taken the other three prize cards, Sally X would have had to have been KO’d and then retrieved from the discard pile and then used to level up another Sally. You should have lost this battle; you used Sally X’s power incorrectly. I did the same thing a handful of times until someone pointed out that I was using the card wrong.

  27. joao

    pessoaly i dont like salamance… but that list is great… good post

    sorry if any error in the post

  28. joao

    pessoaly i dont like salamance… but that list is great… good post

    sorry if any error in the post

  29. Sergio Ortiz

    IMO flygon is LOTS better, but seems like we gotta talk about this right after first cities, memory berry is quite a FANTASTIC combo w/battle rush really impressive!
    I do hate gengar, but who cares if u can possibly twice a double fall, gengar won’t be that annoying 2 vs 1, what do you guys think?

    • xFR3AKx  → Sergio

      Flygon is only better because of versatility. No one would argue that, however, Fly vs. Sally, Sally prevails. So no, Sally probably won’t be that great in Cities.

  30. Sergio Ortiz

    IMO flygon is LOTS better, but seems like we gotta talk about this right after first cities, memory berry is quite a FANTASTIC combo w/battle rush really impressive!
    I do hate gengar, but who cares if u can possibly twice a double fall, gengar won’t be that annoying 2 vs 1, what do you guys think?

    • xFR3AKx  → Sergio

      Flygon is only better because of versatility. No one would argue that, however, Fly vs. Sally, Sally prevails. So no, Sally probably won’t be that great in Cities.

  31. Tom

    this is the actual deck im am currently using but mine is way different looks stable i think salamence has a shot this year

  32. Tom

    this is the actual deck im am currently using but mine is way different looks stable i think salamence has a shot this year

  33. vergel

    i have a few things that i have some issues with.

    1. have you tried call energy? it seems extremely good in this deck. you dont really need that many basic energy. just play an extra NM or a palmer, and you can just run call energy instead and have a great opening energy. you only discard RW when you do 120, which should get 2 prizes. NM once or twice, and youre fine, if you happen to blow all your energy anyways
    2. 4 lookers and a VS seeker? seriously? and yet only 3 roseanne and 3 bebe? you don’t even play call energy. you expecting to shuffle and god-draw into a high-cost stage 2 attacker? you need to drop 2 of them for another rose and bebe. 4 lookers is abolsutely ridiculous. its not even that good of a draw card- shuffle and draw 5. in a deck like this, id rather use cynthia’s.
    3. you play no snowpoint temple, so your SP matchup seems utterly horrible. you have no energy acceleration, and garchomp can 1-shot you for 2 energy, very quickly and easily. the high energy costs and setup costs are very difficult to handle with double weakness and luxray and power spray for double fall. i might as well scold you for not including spiritomb here =P this card is just too good in this deck. it hard evolves your bench, and stops donk decks and very importantly- stops SP for a little while. you get more time to set up vs stage 2 decks and quick decks, and then you can come out roaring. even 2 spiritomb is solid.

    -2 BTS
    -2 warp point (or 1 warp and 1 memory berry)
    -4 looker’s
    -2 W
    -2 R
    -1 pokemon rescue
    +2 spiritomb
    +4 call
    +1 bebe’s
    +1 roseanne’s
    +1 palmer’s contribution
    +2 snowpoint temple
    +2 cynthia’s feelings

    i think you need to focus a bit more on the consistent draw like cynthias after a KO, bebes/roseanne, starters like chatot (already included) and spiritomb, call energy, and palmer’s over PR. snowpoint is better than BTS in that it doesnt help the opponent and provides you sick acceleration vs SP which is quite necessary.

    i would honestly consider using expert belt over memory berry as well. cant use both, and you often need that extra damage. something to think about at least.

    i don’t know how necessary nidoking is. he doesnt seem to help vs dialga G X. dusknoir is always a great tech. i would probably forego the tech line and just focus on consistency.

  34. vergel

    i have a few things that i have some issues with.

    1. have you tried call energy? it seems extremely good in this deck. you dont really need that many basic energy. just play an extra NM or a palmer, and you can just run call energy instead and have a great opening energy. you only discard RW when you do 120, which should get 2 prizes. NM once or twice, and youre fine, if you happen to blow all your energy anyways
    2. 4 lookers and a VS seeker? seriously? and yet only 3 roseanne and 3 bebe? you don’t even play call energy. you expecting to shuffle and god-draw into a high-cost stage 2 attacker? you need to drop 2 of them for another rose and bebe. 4 lookers is abolsutely ridiculous. its not even that good of a draw card- shuffle and draw 5. in a deck like this, id rather use cynthia’s.
    3. you play no snowpoint temple, so your SP matchup seems utterly horrible. you have no energy acceleration, and garchomp can 1-shot you for 2 energy, very quickly and easily. the high energy costs and setup costs are very difficult to handle with double weakness and luxray and power spray for double fall. i might as well scold you for not including spiritomb here =P this card is just too good in this deck. it hard evolves your bench, and stops donk decks and very importantly- stops SP for a little while. you get more time to set up vs stage 2 decks and quick decks, and then you can come out roaring. even 2 spiritomb is solid.

    -2 BTS
    -2 warp point (or 1 warp and 1 memory berry)
    -4 looker’s
    -2 W
    -2 R
    -1 pokemon rescue
    +2 spiritomb
    +4 call
    +1 bebe’s
    +1 roseanne’s
    +1 palmer’s contribution
    +2 snowpoint temple
    +2 cynthia’s feelings

    i think you need to focus a bit more on the consistent draw like cynthias after a KO, bebes/roseanne, starters like chatot (already included) and spiritomb, call energy, and palmer’s over PR. snowpoint is better than BTS in that it doesnt help the opponent and provides you sick acceleration vs SP which is quite necessary.

    i would honestly consider using expert belt over memory berry as well. cant use both, and you often need that extra damage. something to think about at least.

    i don’t know how necessary nidoking is. he doesnt seem to help vs dialga G X. dusknoir is always a great tech. i would probably forego the tech line and just focus on consistency.

  35. BB2Si

    Gausch: I made a deck based off of your idea revolving around Salamence Lv.X. In the version I built, I used 2 Salamence from Arceus and 1 from Stormfront and for the Tech I used a 1-1 line of Delcatty with Power Circulation. Instead of Chatot I used another Unown G. I took out the Vs Seeker, 2 Looker’s, and a Warp Point for an extra Night Maintenance, Pokemon Rescue, and 2 Call Energy.

    It’s very efficient and very consistant.

  36. BB2Si

    Gausch: I made a deck based off of your idea revolving around Salamence Lv.X. In the version I built, I used 2 Salamence from Arceus and 1 from Stormfront and for the Tech I used a 1-1 line of Delcatty with Power Circulation. Instead of Chatot I used another Unown G. I took out the Vs Seeker, 2 Looker’s, and a Warp Point for an extra Night Maintenance, Pokemon Rescue, and 2 Call Energy.

    It’s very efficient and very consistant.

  37. SMGausch

    Thanks again for the comments people, glad you either liked the article or it stirred up some conversation. Vergel I agree with alot of what you are saying, and if you had read the other comments posted you would see I had already stated that this article was distorted a bit when I submitted it and when it was editted by the sp staff who did a great job a few things were lost in translation. I am running call in the deck and the 4 lookers was a typo, I run two instead of two cynthia’s because if I get them early and need a new had 5 is better than 4 if something hasn’t been knowed out, just a personal preference. 1 nm or 1 palmer’s is all that is really necessary as you really don’t burn that many energy and 14 is more than enough. Also memory berry just works so much better here and you don’t risk giving back the extra prize you just took, though I do agree the extra twenty damage would be nice in a good bit of scenarios. It just alot of times you could just rage for 0 or 2 energies to get the ko instead of burning two energy and having the expert belt attached. Finally I had tried the snowpoint temple idea, but in reality it makes Luxray Gl/Infernape 4 now have 130 hp, still not a ko with steam twister and things like palkia g and dialga g already have 120 hp and are usually run together so “battle rush” is turned off by the dialga g lv x anyway. I do admit there probably is a better stadium, I almost never use bts, it probably could be replaced with two more crucial cards or even just leave one. I just like it for the odd dusknoir deck or toxitank so I can remove their stadiums.

  38. SMGausch

    I really appreciate the comments people, thanks for posting, but make sure you read the other comments on here because they clear up or discuss a lot of things that you may want to post about, that way you can add to the discussion instead of rehashing things already covered.

  39. ctaylor33

    I ran a similar deck this past weekend and went 11-2 in league play between Saturday and Sunday. Admittedly I probably do not play the level of competition most of you are accustomed to, but this is definitely a competitive deck. I continue to tweak it to help it setup faster but once it is setup, it is hard to beat. Thanks, Sam!

  40. ctaylor33

    I ran a similar deck this past weekend and went 11-2 in league play between Saturday and Sunday. Admittedly I probably do not play the level of competition most of you are accustomed to, but this is definitely a competitive deck. I continue to tweak it to help it setup faster but once it is setup, it is hard to beat. Thanks, Sam!

  41. The Thunder

    Wow, I love Salamence and I this is a good inspiration to me because I’ve been testing a Salamence LV.X and Luxray GL LV.X deck for now. Its been really fun playing this deck and I think it will be a very competitive deck if you play it right and get fast set-up cards.

  42. SMGausch

    Thanks again for the comments people, glad you either liked the article or it stirred up some conversation. Vergel I agree with alot of what you are saying, and if you had read the other comments posted you would see I had already stated that this article was distorted a bit when I submitted it and when it was editted by the sp staff who did a great job a few things were lost in translation. I am running call in the deck and the 4 lookers was a typo, I run two instead of two cynthia’s because if I get them early and need a new had 5 is better than 4 if something hasn’t been knowed out, just a personal preference. 1 nm or 1 palmer’s is all that is really necessary as you really don’t burn that many energy and 14 is more than enough. Also memory berry just works so much better here and you don’t risk giving back the extra prize you just took, though I do agree the extra twenty damage would be nice in a good bit of scenarios. It just alot of times you could just rage for 0 or 2 energies to get the ko instead of burning two energy and having the expert belt attached. Finally I had tried the snowpoint temple idea, but in reality it makes Luxray Gl/Infernape 4 now have 130 hp, still not a ko with steam twister and things like palkia g and dialga g already have 120 hp and are usually run together so “battle rush” is turned off by the dialga g lv x anyway. I do admit there probably is a better stadium, I almost never use bts, it probably could be replaced with two more crucial cards or even just leave one. I just like it for the odd dusknoir deck or toxitank so I can remove their stadiums.

  43. SMGausch

    I really appreciate the comments people, thanks for posting, but make sure you read the other comments on here because they clear up or discuss a lot of things that you may want to post about, that way you can add to the discussion instead of rehashing things already covered.

  44. The Thunder

    Wow, I love Salamence and I this is a good inspiration to me because I’ve been testing a Salamence LV.X and Luxray GL LV.X deck for now. Its been really fun playing this deck and I think it will be a very competitive deck if you play it right and get fast set-up cards.

  45. vergel

    usually the snowpoint giving +20 is counteracted by the expert belt giving you +20 damage. i’d try to use a combination of both berry and belt.

  46. vergel

    usually the snowpoint giving +20 is counteracted by the expert belt giving you +20 damage. i’d try to use a combination of both berry and belt.

  47. SMGausch

    Both Memory Berry and expert belt seem like too many slots taken up by tools and also mean you have to be careful with witch you attach. I just don’t like the idea of giving back the extra prize I just took. But I guess you could think of it as double fall canceling out the extra prize for expert belt while allowing you to do more damage and have higher hp. I can see that the strategy has merit, but seems like it would need its own build around that concept.

  48. vergel

    yeah, im just saying, you said you had limited success with snowpoint against SP- which is who its entirely in the deck for, but the thing is, you also have to run expert belt or else, as you noted, you’re giving them HP beyond 120- beyond what you can OHKO for.

    you wont see the effect of snowpoint unless you also run expert belt. so if youre going to use some stadiums, and snowpoint is the best one, then you need expert belt. just try it out ;)

  49. SMGausch

    Both Memory Berry and expert belt seem like too many slots taken up by tools and also mean you have to be careful with witch you attach. I just don’t like the idea of giving back the extra prize I just took. But I guess you could think of it as double fall canceling out the extra prize for expert belt while allowing you to do more damage and have higher hp. I can see that the strategy has merit, but seems like it would need its own build around that concept.

  50. vergel

    yeah, im just saying, you said you had limited success with snowpoint against SP- which is who its entirely in the deck for, but the thing is, you also have to run expert belt or else, as you noted, you’re giving them HP beyond 120- beyond what you can OHKO for.

    you wont see the effect of snowpoint unless you also run expert belt. so if youre going to use some stadiums, and snowpoint is the best one, then you need expert belt. just try it out ;)

  51. rhino

    Great stuff!! My son is running similar deck in junior division. Has only lost to a regi deck

  52. rhino

    Great stuff!! My son is running similar deck in junior division. Has only lost to a regi deck

  53. great deck!
    pokedrawer and call energy are vital!!!!
    but a great new powerhouse deck i love it

  54. CoMiT

    great deck!
    pokedrawer and call energy are vital!!!!
    but a great new powerhouse deck i love it

  55. Per Ängquist

    Will Power Spray stop Double Fall if Salamence KO an SP Pokémon while there is only only two SP left on the bench? Technically I think the PokéPower is used just after the Pokémon is KO so it shouldn’t work, but I don’t know.

  56. ctaylor33

    Double Fall needs to be announced first, then Power Spray can be played, then the attack and subsequent KO. I have played Salamence in tournaments with a judge and know for a fact that this is how it would play out. Power Spray makes Sally X a less than competitive card.

        • xFR3AKx  → ctaylor33

          Depends on the area. Luck plays a role as well. I was present at the tourney it won. Donked a BlazeRay deck. That’s lucky.

        • SMGausch  → xFR3AKx

          I won a local tourny and went 3-2 at two br’s with a pre arcues expansion sally deck. The deck can win, but you need luck and to play almost mistake free, there are just so many better choices that it loses is viability.

  57. Double Fall needs to be announced first, then Power Spray can be played, then the attack and subsequent KO. I have played Salamence in tournaments with a judge and know for a fact that this is how it would play out. Power Spray makes Sally X a less than competitive card.

        • xFR3AKx  → ctaylor33

          Depends on the area. Luck plays a role as well. I was present at the tourney it won. Donked a BlazeRay deck. That’s lucky.

        • SMGausch  → xFR3AKx

          I won a local tourny and went 3-2 at two br’s with a pre arcues expansion sally deck. The deck can win, but you need luck and to play almost mistake free, there are just so many better choices that it loses is viability.

  58. SMGausch

    Double Fall is used when you play sally x from your hand to evolve your active Sally. Thus it can be sprayed, and it has to be active to level-up and use the power so no hiding behind spiritomb to prevent power spray then retreating and attacking.

  59. Per Ängquist

    Will Power Spray stop Double Fall if Salamence KO an SP Pokémon while there is only only two SP left on the bench? Technically I think the PokéPower is used just after the Pokémon is KO so it shouldn’t work, but I don’t know.

  60. SMGausch

    Double Fall is used when you play sally x from your hand to evolve your active Sally. Thus it can be sprayed, and it has to be active to level-up and use the power so no hiding behind spiritomb to prevent power spray then retreating and attacking.

  61. Per Ängquist

    I have tried this deck and like it alot. I’ve had alot of fun playing it.

    But what do you guys think about using the AR Shelgon instead of the SW- or SF-types? The AR-Shelgon prevents damage by attacks to Shelgon for just (C) which is very useful when setting up in attack position in early game and then having most out of Salamence.

  62. Per Ängquist

    I have tried this deck and like it alot. I’ve had alot of fun playing it.

    But what do you guys think about using the AR Shelgon instead of the SW- or SF-types? The AR-Shelgon prevents damage by attacks to Shelgon for just (C) which is very useful when setting up in attack position in early game and then having most out of Salamence.

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  64. Gold Bullion

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