The power of Zygarde GX

Hello everyone! This is Elena from Gaia Storm TCG and welcome to another article! Today, we are going to discuss a very powerful legendary Pokémon and its viability in the current format: none other than Zygarde GX.

With 200 HP, auto charging attacks and fighting support, Zygarde GX seems at first glance to be packed with everything it needs to shine in the game. However, the insane power of Buzzwole and the ultimate consistency of Malamar decks are currently much more superior strategies and prevent Zygarde from appearing in important tournaments. Nonetheless, Zygarde has the potential to surprise and becomes very difficult to deal with once it has set up.

The main strategy of the deck is to discard a couple of energies early on and attach manually a DCE, allowing Zygarde GX to be fully powered in the second turn. From that moment on, Zygarde becomes a monster, gaining access Veredict GX, its GX move that protects from GX and EX damage. If the opponent is not able to find a response, Zygarde is perfectly capable of dealing another hit and seal the game. Speaking of it, a very interesting fact about Zygarde is that it is the only Pokémon capable of ignoring the game restriction of a GX move.

There are many tools Zygarde GX has at its disposition to quickly reach his goal. To begin with, it is a fighting Pokémon, meaning it can benefit from all the tools that this type has. Diancie Prism, Regirock EX and Strong energy ensure that Zygarde can basically kill anything in one hit with Land’s Wrath. On the stadiums’ side, Brooklet Hill helps getting Pokémon consistently but Scorched Earth is also a fantastic addition to discard energies in the first turns. I would say that the best way of playing Zygarde is building a pure, fighting centered-type deck with support Pokémon like Diancie & Regirock and the Max Elixir engine. There are some players that have tried the deck with Zoroark GX in order to discard energy as well as benefiting from the DCE attachments. This version of the deck has more chances of repeating the GX moves since it has easier access to Clem, the specific supporter that lets Zygarde overcome the “one attack per game” limitation.

Of course, Zygarde GX can’t be compared right now with the top tier decks of the moment but it is still a very interesting option to play in a metagame dominated by Buzzwole. Thanks for reading!