Andrea Ceolin’s 2nd Place LostGar: Predicted Decklist and Analysis

pokebeach.comHey SixPrizes! I’m Franco and this is my first article on SixPrizes.com! I hope that I can make this a good one. I want to thank Adam for being kind enough to put this article on the front page.

Also, to clear things up, I’m still in middle school and I am only in the Seniors division so my analysis might not be as good as people in Masters. Some stuff in this article is said in Pokémandanlv45’s video and Andrea’s thread because they say things so well that I can’t put it into my own words sometimes.

I’ll put the things that he says in parentheses so I won’t be “plagiarizing.”

This article is like a breakdown on Andrea Ceolin’s LostGar list that he took to the European Cup in Europe (obviously :P) and he took second place with.

This is not his true card to card decklist; it is just a decklist that would be the most probable based on my knowledge in LostGar, Pokémandanlv45’s episode 21, and Andrea’s report on Pokégym. Some of the lines of cards are from Pokémandanlv45’s video as well as some comments on Andrea’s report. I’ll post the link to Andrea’s article at the bottom of the article.

So, for those of you players who don’t know what LostGar is, it is a(n) (over-hyped) deck that focuses on getting the Stadium “Lost World” into play while also trying to get six Pokémon in the Lost Zone. Lost World is basically another win condition. The card makes it that if your opponent has six or more Pokémon in the Lost Zone, then you may choose to win the game. (Kind of like taking 6 Prizes for six Pokémon.)

So, that means that the player has to get six Pokémon in the Lost Zone. How? By using Gengar Prime’s “Hurl Into Darkness” attack which sends the number of your opponent’s Pokémon in his/her hand to their Lost Zone up to the number of Psychic energy attached to Gengar Prime.

pokebeach.comSo as an example, if your opponent has two Pokémon in their hand and you have two Psychic energy attached to Gengar Prime, you can use Hurl Into Darkness to send both of the Pokémon in your opponent’s hand into the Lost Zone.

The thing is, what if your opponent doesn’t have any Pokémon in their hand? Then you use Seeker which lets you and your opponent pick up a Pokémon from each of your bench. So basically, you get a free Pokémon in the Lost Zone that way, assuming that your opponent has a Pokémon on their bench.

To also make sure that your opponent has Pokémon in their hand, players use the Mr. Mime from the newest set, Call of Legends. Mr. Mime has a Poké-Power, “Trick Reveal” which lets you and your opponent reveal your hands to one another.

The only setback is that your opponent can see your hand too, so they can probably guess what you are about to do next.

Players also use the Spiritomb from Triumphant, which has a Poké-Power, “Spooky Whirlpool” which lets your opponent shuffle away their hand and then draw six new cards. This could be useful to make your opponent draw Pokémon as well as go for a little disruption.

The first idea with LostGar was to run a turbo engine such as Pokémon Communication, Poké Drawer +, Unown R, Broken Time-Space, Rare Candy, etc. to get out a T1 Gengar Prime as well as Hurl Into Darkness to out-speed Pokémon SP as well as other decks in the format.

Since the deck was doing so well in Japan, players though that it would do REALLY good in tournaments in the U.S.A. Did it work out?

Not really.

pokebeach.comIt didn’t work out as well because LostGar had no way of taking prizes and getting slowed down meant that it would probably lose because of prizes. Even with the addition of Twins, LostGar still wasn’t as good to people when they tested with it.

LostGar also had been predicted to do horrible on top cut matches because it had limited time to get six Pokémon in the Lost Zone as well as getting a Lost World out in only two rounds. If the match went to sudden death, then LostGar would certainly lose because it had no way of taking that 1 Prize.

However, Andrea thought differently and took LostGar to another perspective. It was slowing down the opponent so that LostGar can keep up. To do this, he did the basic strategy of VileGar, set up a Vileplume along with evolving with Spiritomb from Arceus to keep the opponent under trainer lock.

So, that is the basic strategy and a bit of history about LostGar, some of the original elements of LostGar are still used in this decklist like the Mr. Mime.

So anyway, here is the decklist that I put a lot of thought and math into in order to predict it. The whole Gengar line, the 4-3-2-1-1 line is said in Pokémondanlv45’s video and also of Andrea’s thread.

Pokémon – 27  4 Gastly SF 3 Haunter TM 2 Gengar Prime 1 Gengar SF 1 Gengar LV.X AR 1 Oddish LA #111 (G) 1 Oddish LA #112 (P) 2 Gloom LA #96 (Grass) 2 Vileplume UD 4 Spiritomb AR 2 Uxie LA 1 Uxie LV.X LA 1 Azelf LA 1 Unown Q MD 1 Mr. Mime CL

Trainers – 19  4 Bebe’s Search 4 Pokémon Collector 3 Seeker 3 Twins 2 Broken Time-Space 3 Lost World

Energy – 14  6 P 2 Call 3 Rescue 3 Warp

Okay, now for the card analysis, why he picked them and why it is the number that it is.

4 Gastly SF – Four Gastly SF is basically a staple of any Gengar build in the metagame. It can lock trainers with its “Pitch Dark” attack.

3 Haunter TM – I know that Andrea runs at least one Haunter from TM because in his report he says somewhere that he retreats Haunter for free without and Unown Q and he says that he uses Haunter’s second attack which poisons and puts his opponent’s Pokémon to sleep, which is the TM Haunter does.

I assume that he runs three because it has free retreat and it has a somewhat more decent attack than the other Haunters.

2 Gengar Prime – You know why there are Gengar Prime. There is two Gengar Prime because if there were three, then there would be no way to take prizes; which leads me to the…

1 Gengar SF – This Gengar had won many of Andrea’s games. Its attack, “Poltergeist,” does 30 damage times the amount of Trainers, Supporters, and Stadiums in your opponent’s hand. So, with the Vileplume locking trainers, Andrea’s opponents can’t use any trainers.

Also, Andrea says himself, (from his thread)

“I personally think that in Top Cut a straight Lost World deck is always gonna lose.
I had several top cut games which were played REALLY fast on both sides and the 60 minutes finished when we were finishing the 2nd game.

The problem is that in Top Cut you lose so much time in shuffling/setting for the 2nd and the 3rd game (4-5 minutes) and in thinking at the board and about when/if it’s better to scoop.
It’s easier to finish one game in 30 minutes + 3 turns than two games in 60 minutes (which are always 50-55 minutes of play) + 3 turns.

This is why I feel that a deck like LostGar, if it wants to win, it has to have a way of winning through prizes.

The reason why I didn’t play 2 SF or 3 SF Gengar is just one: if all you can do is Poltergeist, you’ll auto-loss to everyone’s LuxChomp, at least in the Swiss games. Winning through Lost World is much easier.”

And I mostly agree with him. I have been testing with one SF Gengar, two Gengar Prime, and one Gengar LV.X and it works out so well.

Gengar LV.X – I think that Andrea runs Gengar LV.X, like all other VileGar, Gengar variants, and LostGar players is to get rid of some annoying LV.X’s like Luxray GL LV.X, Garchomp C LV.X, Uxie LV.X, Dialga G LV.X, etc.

Dialga G LV.X is a big one though because Dialga G LV.X has a Poké-Body, “Time Crystal” which shuts down all Poké-Body’s on the field excluding Pokémon SP’s Poké-Body’s.

This really hurts because it shuts off Vileplume’s Poké-Body which would let the opponent play trainers again thus leaving LostGar behind. That would also prevent Gengar SF from getting prizes from Poltergeist.

1 Oddish LA 111 and 1 Oddish LA 112 – Andrea says in his report,

“I used my Oddish LA, the one that can Poison (I had also the one who can Paralyze… as Stephen Silvestro showed, even a String Shot can make you win games!!!).”

This is used to evolve into Vileplume (obviously -.-‘) and he didn’t use the Undaunted Oddish because he could be donked by Uxie with an energy if he starts only with the UD one.

2 Gloom LA 96 – I think that Andrea used this Gloom because it has only one retreat and doesn’t have a x2 weakness to fire, but that doesn’t really matter much. In the long run, I think that even with the 80 HP the Psychic Gloom from Legends Awakened, one Retreat Cost is better. Both Glooms would get 1-shotted by Garchomp C LV.X’s “Dragon Rush” attack which can do 80 damage to any of the opponent’s Pokémon at the cost of discarding a Double Colorless Energy.

2 Vileplume UD – This Vileplume (yes, there is another legal one in the format apparently) locks Trainers with its Allergy Flower Poké-Body to slow down the opponent as well as setting up Gengar SF’s Poltergeist attack.

Andrea runs two, like all the other players who have Vileplume for support, so that if one gets Knocked Out, the other one is ready to be set up so the trainer lock will be going on much longer.

4 Spiritomb AR – Yes, no TM Sprirtomb because Andrea wanted the maximum potential to start with Spiritomb as well as get it into play early so that his opponent’s Trainers will be locked with Spiritomb’s Poké-Body, “Keystone Seal,” as well as evolving his Gastly into Gengar and Oddish into Vileplume.

This is why Andrea put four Bebe’s Search, four Pokémon Collector, and two Call Energy. I’ll get into why he put only two Call Energy instead of three or four.

2 Uxie LA – This card is a no-brainer in any deck (unless the deck is Charizard) because of Uxie’s amazing ability to draw cards until you have seven in your hand with its Poké-Power, “Set Up.” There. All said and done.

1 Uxie LV.X – One of the most expensive cards in the format, why did he include it? Probably for more draw power as well get even more of a better matchup against Machamp decks. Uxie LV.X’s Poké-Power, “Trade Off,” lets you look at the top two cards of your deck, choose one of them, and put the other one at the bottom. This is basically an every turn Pokédex Handy 910is, which can net him cards that he would need.

1 Azelf LA – Azelf has a Poké-Power, “Time Walk,” which lets you look at your prizes and re-arrange them as you like while also giving you an option to take a Pokémon from your prizes and switch it with another card from your hand. This is good if the Gengar SF is in his prizes or the Gengar LV.X or a crucial Pokémon is in his prizes. He can get it out with Time Walk and get into the game.

1 Unown Q MD – I know that Andrea used Unown Q because he started with it and topdecked a Call Energy to save his game. He uses it to give any Pokémon with one Retreat Cost free retreat with Unown’s “Quick’ Poké-Power which lets him attach Unown Q to one of his Pokémon if Unown is on his bench and give the Pokémon Unown Q is attached to one less Retreat Cost. This is great for saving energy and energy drops to retreat.

1 Mr. Mime CoL – Finally! The last Pokémon. Mr. Mime, as I have said before, lets each player reveal their hand to their opponent with Trick Reveal. This lets Andrea scout on what his opponent can do and to assure him that his opponent has Pokémon in their hand.

4 Bebe’s Search – This is a staple card. Andrea runs four because it lets him have a better chance to search for Spiritomb early game. ‘Nuff said.

4 Pokémon Collector – This is also another staple card. He runs four, not three to ensure that he can search for Spiritomb early game thus setting up early. Also ‘nuff said.

3 Seeker – OMG, THREE Seeker? Well, I think that Andrea runs three Seeker, not four, because he has limited deck space with all of his Pokémon and four Collector and four Bebe’s, and also that since he has a secondary attacker, Gengar SF, he doesn’t need four to ensure if his opponent has any Pokémon in his hand.

Gengar SF can take prizes when the lock is going so then Andrea doesn’t really focus on getting Pokémon into the Lost Zone.

3 Twins – OMG, THREE Twins? Since Gengar SF could be taking prizes late game, four Twins could result in dead-draw which could slow the deck a bit. However, three Twins is perfect early game when Spiritomb gets Knocked Out or if a Gengar Prime or another Pokémon gets Knocked Out.

2 Broken Time-Space – Geez, there are some weird plays in terms of card numbers here. However, I somewhat agree with them. Since LostGar is a stage two deck, it NEEDS to run BTS. However, this deck can’t use Rare Candy because Spiritomb might lock it early game thus making them useless.

Also, if Andrea’s deck included Rare Candy, then he would most likely bring it up in his report. Andrea runs two BTS because if he ran one then it wouldn’t really be worth being played.

pokebeach.comI think that he made the okay call here because the deck isn’t about speed, it is about slowing the opponent down with Vileplume. I mean if one BTS was in his prizes then that would be a problem but I don’t think that that happened though… o.o

3 Lost World – Well, if Andrea ran two Lost World, then I don’t think that the deck wouldn’t do so well if one or both of them would be in his prizes. I mean since this deck basically focuses on Lost Zoning Pokémon, I guess that this is why Andrea probably runs three.

However, the number of BTS could be three and the Lost World count could be two, and it could be pretty likely because Andrea won only one-third of his games with Lost World.

However, with the concept of Lost Zoning Pokémon as the main goal and evolving mostly with Spiritomb, those are the reasons why I think Andrea ran two BTS and two Lost World.

6 P Energy – Yeah, P Energy is used to power up Gengar, yadda yadda yadda… I’m just going to say why I think he put six instead of something like seven or eight.

I think that he put six Psychics in the deck because he had limited deck space and that six can power up Gengar SF’s Poltergeist attack, Gengar LV.X’s “Compound Pain” (with two Psychic energy and a Rescue energy attached), and both Gengar Primes’ Hurl Into Darkness attack (with one attached to each).

Now, I know that that might now be the case, but if Andrea will use Gengar SF to take prizes, then the Gengar Primes will most likely be sitting on the bench, waiting to be used with maybe one or two psychic energy attached to each.

2 Call Energy – Yes. Andrea runs two Call Energy. How do I know for sure? He says it himself in his thread. Now for all of you Call Energy buffs that say that putting three or less Call energy in your deck is wrong, no, it isn’t wrong in this case. Yeah, he runs two, but he says himself that his Warp, Psychic, and Rescue Energy count was already high and he wanted to run more Call energy but he couldn’t.

He also runs two in order to get himself out of a bad start and to have another way to get Spiritomb out early game. The Call also saved him from getting donked when he started with Unown Q! Cool.

3 Rescue Energy – Andrea probably ran three Rescue energy because since he only ran one Gengar SF then he needs a way to recycle its Poké-Power, “Fainting Spell.” It can also be used as a form of recovery since he doesn’t run any recovery cards like Palmer’s Contribution.

3 Warp Energy – I think that Andrea ran three Warp energy so that he can ensure that he can get Vileplume out of the Active Spot if it gets brought up by (for example) Luxray GL LV.X. It would also make it safe for him just in case one Warp energy was in his prizes.

Whew. That was tiring. Now, I will basically analyze on how this version of LostGar works.

To start is basically the same with VileGar, set up and try to start with Spiritomb and if you start with Gastly, Pitch Dark. With Spiritomb, try to set up a Vileplume and Gengar.

Now, depending on the situation and the deck that the opponent is playing, Andrea will set up either a Gengar Prime and try to Lost Zone Pokémon and wile locking trainers with Vileplume. When he starts to fall back on prizes, Andrea uses Gengar SF to sweep through his opponent taking 6 Prizes in six turns.

If his opponent is slowed down enough, then Andrea tries to Lost Zone six Pokémon and get Lost World out for the game.

I have tested a variant of LostGar against another opponent running Weavile G in his LuxChomp and if he sets up a Weavile G and 1HKO a Gengar Prime, I can just revenge kill it with Gengar SF. Also, he is somewhat afraid to put down Pokémon with Poké-Powers because they would get 2HKO’ed by Shadow Room but also those Pokémon are Hurl Into Darkness bait.

pokebeach.comHe could shuffle away Pokémon using Professor Oak’s New Theory and Bebe’s Search but he won’t be able to shuffle away his Trainers because he will shuffle away his Pokémon or vice-versa. Also, in order to 1HKO Gengar Prime, my opponent can’t really put down Uxies because they would take up bench space.

Yeah, he could drop a Crobat G but it could just get hit with Shadow Room twice or a Shadow Room and then Cursed Drop to send that to the Lost Zone.

So, that is it. You are now free to comment, hate, appreciate, and give constructive criticism. (CONSTRUCTIVE ONLY PLEASE!)

Also, thanks again to Adam for putting this on the front page.

Thanks for reading!

By the way, here is the link to Andrea’s report:

http://pokegym.net/forums/showthread.php?t=142265