Drampa/Garb was a Pokémon Trading Card Gamedeck archetype mainly played in the 2017-2018 season, remaining as a contender during the 2018-2019 format. The deck's strategy revolved around punishing opposing decks that relied on too many Item and Special Energy cards through the main Pokémon's Attacks. This deck took players by surprise in an Item-heavy format, getting many top 8 spotlights at release. Drampa/Garb players ranked 8th place in the Masters Division, 4th and 6th place in the Senior Division and 7th place in the Junior Division at the 2017 Pokémon Trading Card Game World Championships.
Strategy
Drampa/Garb introduced a counter to the commonly fast-paced decks in the format with Garbodor's Trashalanche attack, which dealt 20 damage damage times the amount of Item cards in the opponent's discard pile. Scaling damage quickly was an easy feat against players that did not adapt against Garbodor's threat, but it was as well easy to counter this strategy by playing a slower game with less played Items; due to this, Drampa-GX was used in the deck as an attacker with two damaging attacks to pressure enough the opponent to play more Item cards.
For one energy cost, Drampa-GX could redraw cards with its GX Attack or discard Special Energy from the defending Pokémon. Its Berserk Attack could deal additional damage when a Benched Pokémon had any damage counters on it; the player could setup this effect by playing Rainbow Energy on benched Pokémon or Team Magma's Secret Base to damage further played Pokémon. GarbotoxinGarbodor was played as the deck already used Trubbish.
Espeon-GX was a notable variant of this deck often played in the place of Drampa-GX. During the Celestial Storm meta, Garbodor found a better fit in the Buzzwole/Garbodor archetype, though this deck kept as a contender in the Expanded format.
Drampa-GX - For one energy, Drampa-GX's Righteous Edge Attack dealt 20 damage while discarding a special energy from the defending Pokémon and Big Wheel-GX made the player shuffle its hand to draw 10 cards. Its main potential was with its Berserk attack for three Energy, which dealt up to 180 damage with a damaged benched Pokémon and Choice Band, knocking out most Basic Pokémon in the format with one attack.
Garbodor - Garbodor's Trashalanche attack did 20 damage times each Item card in the opponent's discard pile with a single Energy. It was a very useful late-game attacker as the opponent would have played many Items by then. Garbodor could also very rarely attack with Acid Spray for 70 damage.
Garbodor - Its GarbotoxinAbility shut down all other Abilities in play as long it had a Tool card attached to it, further controlling the opponent's pace.
Tapu Lele-GX - While Tapu Lele-GX was a common staple to search the deck for Supporter cards, it could easily use both of its attacks in this deck and act as a secondary attacker.
The following cards are often used in Drampa/Garb in place of certain cards included in the above lists.
Necrozma-GX - Its Black Ray GX Attack weakened the opponent's Pokémon-GX to score easier knockouts with Garbodor. Played in the Expanded format with Dimension Valley to need less Energy to attack.
Espeon-GX - Known as Espeon/Garb, this variant played Espeon-GX in favor of Drampa-GX, removing the need to damage the bench while keeping a similar playstyle. More successful than Drampa-GX at some events, especially Worlds 2017 and 2018.
Tapu Fini-GX - Played by Senior quarterfinalist Connor Pedersen at the 2017 World Championships to stall opposing Pokémon with its Tapu Storm-GX attack.
Energy. It was a very useful late-game attacker as the opponent would have played many Items by then. Garbodor could also very rarely attack with Acid Spray for 70 damage.
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