DialgaChomp Decklist, Analysis, and Tech Choices

Dialga Garchomp was once the most winning deck, but slowly started dying out. However, with the right tech, you can go home as the regional/national champion. First we will start off with the plain Dialga Garchomp build, and I will talk about good techs that can be used.

Basic Dialga Garchomp Build

Pokémon 18
3 Dialga G
1 Dialga G LV.X
2 Garchomp C
2 Garchomp C LV.X
2 Crobat G
2 Uxie
1 Uxie LV.X
1 Azelf
1 Bronzong G
1 Unown G
1 Toxicroak G
1 Skuntank G
Trainers/Supporters 30
4 Cyrus’s Conspiracy
2 Roseanne’s Research
2 Bebe’s Search
1 Aaron’s Collection
4 TGI’s SP Radar
4 TGI’s Poké Turn
3 TGI’s Power Spray
3 TGI’s Energy Gain
2 Galactic HQ
2 Expert Belt
1 Night Maintenance
3 Warp Point
Energy 11
4 Double Colorless
2 Basic M
4 Special M Energy
1 P
Pros
– Early Trainer/Stadium Lock
– Fast
SP Deck that does NOT get
harmed by Mewtwo LV.X
– Good Tanking Ability
Cons
Dialga G LV.X has high Retreat
– Slow compared to Luxchomp
– No Cyrus’s Conspiracy first turn hurts the deck a lot
Special M Energies can’t be search
so Dialga G LV.X won’t be able to tank to it’s fullest till later

Main Card Discussion:

pokemon-paradijs.comDialga G/Dialga G LV.X – Heart of the deck. For 1 Metal Energy with TGI Energy Gain, it can drop turn one trainer/stadium lock with the attack “Deafen”. This definitely hurts 90% of the deck, and can single handedly shut down some decks (Shuppet Donk). His second attack “Second Strike” isn’t that bad of an attack either. It does 50 for 1 Metal Energy and 1 Colourless Energy with TGI Energy Gain, and 70 if it already has 2 or more damage counters on it.

Dialga G LV.X shuts down all non Pokémon SP’s Poké-Body. Dialga G LV.X’s attack does 80 for 2 Metal Energies and 1 C Energy with TGI Energy Gain, and you flip a coin until you get tails, and for each head you place as many energy card attached to the Pokémon. He has a -20 Psychic Resistance which is good and x2 weakness to Fire. With each Special M Energies, your opponent’s attack does -10 damage, which means with 4 attached, Cursegar’s “Shadow Skip” or Gardevoir’s “Psychic Lock” will do 0 damage on your Dialga G LV.X

Garchomp C/Garchomp C LV.X – Everyone should by now know what Garchomp C and Garchomp C LV.X do. For those who do not know, Garchomp C does 30 for 1 Colourless Energy with TGI Energy Gain and 50 for 2 Colourless Energy with TGI Energy Gain, but does 10 damage to each of your benched Pokémon. Garchomp C LV.X has a fantastic Poké-Power named “Healing Breath”. “Healing Breath” removes all damage counter from all of your Pokémon SP, pair it up with Dialga G LV.X, your opponent will have a hard time getting over your Dialga G LV.X. Garchomp C LV.X ‘s attack “Dragon Rush” does 80 damage to any of your opponent’s Pokémon that you choose, with 2 Colourless Energy with TGI Energy Gain with 2 energy discard.

pokemon-paradijs.comUxie/Uxie LV.X – Personally, I believe Uxie should be used over Claydol in every SP Deck as it is faster. Uxie’s Poké-Power, “Set-up” lets you draw until you have 7 cards in hand and Uxie LV.X’s Poké-Power “Trade Off” lets you look at the top 2 card of your deck and let’s you choose one of them and send it to your hand. Uxie LV.X’s is also a pretty good attacker, especially against SP Deck’s nightmare, Machamp/Machamp LV.X. Uxie LV.X’s attack “Zen Blade” will do 60 for 2 Colourless Energy, but you will not be able to use that attack next turn. On Machamp it will do 90 with weakness, and if you belt your Uxie LV.X, you will do 110 on Machamp. On Machamp LV.X it will do a 160 without belt, due to Machamp LV.X’s Poké-Body, however, if you have Dialga G LV.X on the field, its Poké-Body is shut off, and you will only do a 100 with Zen Blade. Regardless, it is a fantastic attacker.

Crobat G – You will always find at least 1 of them in every SP Deck. When you put it on the bench, you will be able to put 1 damage counter on any of your opponent’s Pokémon.

Toxicroak G – Found in almost all SP Decks. His Poké-Power “Leap Away” let’s you f lip a coin, and if heads, you pick up Toxicroak G and all cards attached to it back to your hand if your Toxicroak G is active. His attack “Revenge Poison” is a good counter against Luxray GL LV.X since it does 60 damage if your Pokémon was Knocked Out the turn before, and with x2 fighting weakness Luxray GL LV.X has, it will 1HKO him.

Cyrus’s Conspiracy – This is the main supporter for SP Deck. You will always find 4 of these in a SP Deck. It will let you search for a Supporter, Trainer Card with the name Team Galactic’s Invention (TGI) on it and a basic energy. Basically, you will find yourself using Cyrus’s Conspiracy for another Cyrus’s Conspiracy.

TGI Energy Gain – This is what makes SP decks SO much faster. It is a Pokémon Tool, and when it is attached to a Pokémon SP, the attack cost of that Pokémon is 1 Colourless Less.

pokemon-paradijs.comTGI Power Spray – Amazing disruption card, you can use it on your opponent’s turn, and you can use it to stop a Poké-Power once during the turn the opponent uses the Poké-Power. This means when the opponent drops an Uxie, and you power spray it, they just filled their bench with an Uxie that did not let them draw cards.

TGI SP Radar – This card is a Bebe’s Search but for Pokémon SP

Special M Energy – This is the energy you want to load your Dialga G with. For each Special M Energy, your opponent’s attack will do 10 damage less.

Now that I’ve gone over the main card of the deck, the strategy of the deck should be quite clear. For those who did not get it yet, I will tell you the main theme/strategy of the deck. Set up your Dialga G as FAST as possible, and use the attack Deafen to slow your opponent down while you load your Dialga G with Special M Energy, or set up your Garchomp C with Double Colourless Energy and a TGI Energy Gain. When your Dialga G is about to die, use Warp Point to switch in to Garchomp C, level him up, and heal your Dialga G with “Healing Breath”. From here on, you can choose to snipe or retreat in to Dialga G again for tanking and disruption.

Techs people should think about in a Dialga Garchomp Deck

1-1 Luxray GL LV.X is definitely a good tech to use in Dialga Garchomp list. Luxray LV.X’s Poké-Power “Bright Look” lets you choose your opponent’s bench Pokémon and make it active. Of course if you’re adding in this line, you will need to find room for 1 Lightning Energy. However, Luxray GL LV.X is very expensive as the price ranges from 50~70 USD.

pokemon-paradijs.com1-1 Blaziken FB LV.X is an amazing tech to use in Dialga Garchomp. This is currently the tech I use in my Dialga Garchomp Deck and has been working great. Blaziken’s first attack “Luring Flame” lets you choose your opponent to active, and burn them. This means that if you choose their Claydol, they cannot “Cosmic Power”. Also it let’s your mirror matches a lot easier as Blaziken FB LV.X’s attack “Jet Shoot” will 1HKO a Dialga G LV.X with 4 Special Metal energy. I chose this tech over Luxray GL LV.X line because of how cheap it is, and it can potentially do more than what Luxray GL LV.X can do Also with this tech, you will need to find room for 1 fire energy.

More Switch and Warp Point is also a tech to consider, as your Dialga G LV.X has a high Retreat Cost of 3 and by having more Switch and Warp Point, you have a higher chance of being able to switch your Dialga G LV.X with Garchomp for more consistent healing.

More Expert Belt isn’t the best tech, but something to consider. More Expert Belt means more chance of drawing it, which means you can belt your Dialga G early game. Also, since you have more belts in your deck, you can afford to belt your Uxie LV.X 99% of the time

2-2 Claydol line instead of 2-1 Uxie LV.X is a viable option. Using Uxie over Claydol is player preference. As for me, I find Uxie better in SP but some players find 2-2 Claydol better.

Relicanth from Supreme Victors is also a decent choice. It is an SP counter tech as his first attack “Grand Swell” does 30 damage for each Stadium and Pokémon Tool card your opponent has in play. Usually SP Decks will have 2 or more Pokémon Tool card in play as Expert Belt and TGI Energy Gain is in every SP Deck. However, Toxicroak G is better, but harder to obtain.

Conclusion

Dialga Garchomp is still a very strong deck that stands out on top of many decks. It locks, hits heavy, and disrupts. With the tech’s I mentioned above, Dialga Garchomp can be YOUR winning deck.

Reader Interactions

28 replies

  1. eli moses

    Awsome article it told the strategy of the decks and what you should put in them but i would rather have 4 Energy gain and three Sp Radar, although its the best i may consider making this deck know thx for the help.

  2. Poteet24

    No Call energy kind of scares me, along with the absence of Warp energy. I don't know if DCE needs to be maxed out since you won't necessarily have Garchomp attacking as much as you would in say LuxChomp. Warp Point is a dead card against an early Tomb, unless you can get leveled up under Trainer lock….its definitely well written and a decent list.

  3. Thanos Prokopidis

    I've seen people teching Quagsire GL in Dialga-Garchomp as Versilaryan said, Blaziken FB OHKOes your main Pokémon and is a quite common tech in LuxChomp. You may also consider Conductive Quarry, losing your Special Metals early ruins your tanking ability. Plus, if you have a way to retrieve them you can use them for retreating once or twice.

  4. Versilaryan

    I'm thinking that you might want to tech in a Quagsire GL or a Froslass GL or some other water-type Pokemon to deal with fire-types, especially given that Dialga G is weak to fire.

    That, and Poteet's already said what else I was going to say. Solid decklist and great analysis!

  5. Drew Stillwell

    I was always under the assumption that DialgaChomp played warp energies so that you could reuse them after poketurning a damaged dialga. Warp energy into the benched Garchomp C, then level up (healing off damage) and retreat back into the Dialga for more tanking. Warp point does the same thing, and adds some disruption, but in order to maximize your tankiness I would use the warps.

    Also, call energy. It's my understanding that this deck runs few basic (searchable) energies. I'm also agreeing on the conductive quarry suggestion.

    Overall, decent article, but I would have liked for you to go a little more in depth rather than just a glorified decklist. Maybe some strategy on how to most effectively tank given some common situations/matchups or some idea as to how to use garchomp for something other than healing (when/why to snipe something like a claydol on the bench).

  6. Perry Going

    nice article but i say:
    -1 DCE
    -1 Maintenance
    -1 SP radar
    +1 Palmers
    +2 call
    i would try and fit 4 but This is a very tight list

  7. Michael Randolph

    I'm expecting Dialga G to make a real comback, this is still a really good deck to play, even though Luxchomp is more flexable. Excellent article.

  8. Peter Bae

    thanks for all the comments and critiques on the list. Instead of using quagsire GL tech, i choice Blaziken FB Lv X line, although it takes up 1 more room, it can do so much more, dirupt, damage, and can revenge kill blaziken FB Lv X too, altho there is a chance that my blaziken line could get revenge killed. Call energy and warp energy ive tested many times, warp energy i found dead half the times, but very useful when it was needed, and call energy was good when i start off with it, however, late game it was dead. I like night maintenance over palmer because its a trainer, and half the energies in my deck is special lol

  9. Dave Hueglin

    Well written Peter,

    I like how you mention the main reason Luxray GL Lv. X is not used as a tech – the price. I think Blaziken is a good replacement. It will help out against the UL Kingdra for sure. I have also found that Warp Energy can often be drawn at the wrong time – I used to run two but have dropped down to one now.

  10. Brandon Bittinger

    I think you should add VS Seeker.

    BTW this is a good article one of the better ones in a while.

  11. Peter Bae

    i dont find it a tough match up.. you just need the right techs xD, and if you do manage to get first turn deafen, which is very likely, or 2nd turn, you slow them big time

  12. apple

    the only problem is that this deck has a tough matchup against 2 of the top decks right now, luxchomp and luxpluff. =(

  13. Perry Going

    i just realized a big card thats missing. Lucario GL

  14. Poteet24

    Ideally you won't retreat back to a Dialga G with the Warp Energy still on it. You attach to Dialga G, Promote Chomp, heal, Galatic Switch the Warp to the Chomp, Turn the Chomp, and throw Dialga back active, allowing you to repeat next turn.

  15. Collan Baker

    Lucario is becoming less and less important with all the new cards having X2 weakness, and without the Luxray it's almost useless.

  16. Carver Warning

    As an avid Dialga Chomp player, i can tell you your list is pretty solid. The one thing you might consider that i have found to be very effective is pokemon collector. because the deck only plays 3-4 basic energy, roseannes is almost pointless. i find that turn 1 or two, i usually collector for dialga, garchomp, and uxie depending on what i started with.

    Oh the only other thing is Chatot MD. so many times that card has come in handy through terrible setups. i suggest finding space for 1.

    other than that solid list, GREAT Article.

  17. Jeremy C

    Interviewers Question's is actually a quite viable tech in this deck. I run one to two in my DialgaChomp, and they help me get special metals and DCE when I need them. Also, I do not like Skuntank G and the Stadiums. With only two stadiums, you probably won't be able to keep using poisen structure very long, and the stadiums do not have much of a benefit, if you ever use them.

  18. Perry Going

    i guess youre right. The only problem i see is Flygon when they dont level up. other than that i guess youre right.

  19. Peter Bae

    tho this is my build, the one i use in tournament is different, with my techs and such. my build does not run galactic HQ and Skuntank G. HOWEVER! when it is in play, it has potential to do so much damage, it lets you OHKO pokemon with dragon rush that you usually never could

  20. Collan Baker

    I did see it get played to walk through a Tyranitar deck last night though, it was pretty sweet.

  21. Karol Nowak

    This is yet another great article that has a great deck analysis and good decklist, what a 6P article really is. Great article you got there! I'm surprised that this list runs a DialgaChomp without Claydol since Claydol is seen a lot in DialgaChomp. Of course, Uxie can work well just as much. The techs you mentioned were also good options in my opinion.

    Once again, great article and great read! I enjoyed reading it.

  22. Choncey

    Someone finally figured out that call energy is not needed in here, congrats.

  23. Choncey

    Someone finally figured out that call energy is not needed in here, congrats.

  24. mewuk85

    dialga garchomp. nice tech ideas……….luxray gl lvx is super expensive now $100 on ebay i got and unleashed booster box for 70……

  25. full movie downloads

    Please tell me it worked right? I dont would like to sumit it once again if i don’t have to! Either the blog glitced out or i am an idiot, the second option doesnt surprise me lol. thanks for a great blog!

  26. Dennis Merkle

    I think you write this blog from a different point of view on the topic, which is rather unique from most other blogs. I welcome your hard work on it.

  27. the sidewalk

    Ehem… *clears throat* – Warp Energy. That is all…

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