Make a Splash in Standard with Magikarp and Wailord GX

Personally my favorite Pokemon is Wailord, so when i saw that they were making a tag team card with Wailord I was very excited. Wailord cards are infamous for being utilized for stall decks due to its history of  having the highest HP in the game. Tag teams in general are known for having higher HP than other Pokemon so of course this one would have the most sitting at 300HP. This time though it seems to have more utility as an attacker with some of the tools we got in Team Up alongside this giant beast. But first we should look at the card itself to see what power it’s packing.

Magikarp & Wailord GX is a water Pokemon with 300 HP with a weakness to grass and has a retreat cost of 4. The non-GX attack is Super Splash which does 180 for 5 water energy and its GX attack is Towering Splash GX which does 10 for one water energy but if this Pokemon has 7 extra water energy attached it does 100 to each of your opponents benched Pokemon!

These attacks require quite a bit of energy to attack with, so how do we get to 5 or even 8 energy for the full power of that GX attack? Blastoise from Team Up! Blastoise has the ability Powerful Squall which lets you look at the top 6 cards of your deck once per turn and take any water energies and attach them as you like to any of your Pokemon. Powerful Squall is a very useful ability when you need to get 5 energies on a Pokemon ASAP.

So we got a main attacker in mind and we have the energy acceleration to help, but what else is in this deck? Well here's the list Clayton Fagan recommended to me and I've loved it so far.

Now we can take a closer look at some of the cards at work here!

Team Up gave us an Articuno that when I first read this card it screamed “PUT ME WITH MAGIKARP & WAILORD GX!!” Articuno's attack Cold Cyclone does 70 damage for 2 water energies and then afterwards you move the 2 energies off of itself to a different Pokemon! Which to be fair by itself seems not so great. But pair it with Blastoise to get 2 energy every turn and have a Magikarp & Wailord to put those 2 energies on, and we have a basic attacker that helps us get damage in while we charge up our big Tag Team GX. But let’s not forget Articuno's ability Blizzard Veil that reads as long as Articuno is active your benched water type Pokemon are safe from being affected by opponent's supports. Sorry Guzma! Can't force Magikarp Wailord to the active and stall this deck!  

The other card that stands out in this deck is Crasher Wake. I see this card as a must have due to the high energy count, with Crasher Wake it is easier to have a consistent turn 2 Blastoise and start charging up your board! (Don't worry the 2 Energy Recyclers will ensure that you never run out of energy)

As an extra attacker for the deck I put in Volcanion Prism Star. Its ability to force a bench into the active can keep us getting knockouts ever turn and if we want to attack with it the spread helps set up a huge GX attack from Magikarp & Wailord increasing the chances of the GX attack giving us 3 or more prizes!

Gameplan!

The ideal active to start the game with is Articuno since he will keep your bench safe while you set up. But if you start with Squirtle all you have to do is find Brooklet Hill, put Articuno onto the bench and Squirtle gets free retreat from its ability Floating Shell.

Thanks to the inclusion of Crasher Wake you should be able to have a board on turn two that has a Blastoise and at least one of your attackers. I personally like attacking with Volcanion on the early turns as soon as turn 2 just to give Magikarp & Wailord GX an extra turn or two to try to hit 8 energies for the bonus on the GX attack. Once you get a big GX attack off (assuming your opponent still can continue) all you do is keep attacking with Magikarp Wailord until you pick up the remaining prizes.

At this point i would normally go over tech options but i feel like the list is solid enough as it is to not need other options. So instead lets talk about Matchups!

Matchups

Pikarom: Favorable

Both decks are trying to get a lot of energies on the board. The matchup boils down to how well you plan ahead. A major plus is that they cant OHKO Magikarp Wailord with Pikarom without hitting Choice Band and 4 Electropowers. If you can get 2 spread damage hits with Volcanion on benched Pikarom, Magikarp Wailord KOs them in one hit with a Choice Band. This matchup is all about setting up the big KOs.

Blacephalon: Ideal

Even without accounting for weakness, Magikarp Wailord can one hit every Pokemon in the deck.

Ultra Mally: Favorable

With a GX attack from Magikarp Wailord, you knock out their while bench of Malamars and the potential Jirachis. That's enough to slow them down to secure the victory. Just make sure their Ultra Necrozma doesn't get enough energy on it!

Jirachi/Zapdos: Favorable

They gotta really set up in order to take important knockouts. Our GX attack KOs the Jirachis and any damaged Zapdos so that's always a plus.

Zoroark Variants: Favorable

They can't OHKO you but you OHKO Zoroark with a Choice Band on Magikarp Wailord. Without Zoroarks they lose a lot of consistency and the matchup becomes more and more in your favor with every one KOd

Honestly your only bad matchup would be Celebi Venusaur because they can kill you in one shot due to weakness and the insane healing doesn't help either

In conclusion, in my testing i feel this deck is highly underrated and can really make a splash in the current meta.

Have any questions or critiques? Feel free to leave a comment! Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!