Charmatter’s Dragon GLC Decklist

EDIT: Dialga and Crispin!

The Dreaded Dragon Depot

The basis of this deck is simple, get your dragons out as soon as possible with cards like Lance (Silver Tempest), Stormy Mountains (Evolving Skies), and via the incredibly powerful ability Dragon Call featured on Gabite (Dragons Exalted).

Drampa (McDonald's Collection 2022), Druddigon (Brilliant Stars), and Garchomp (Brilliant Stars) are all heavy hitters but have an additional cost or criteria that must be fulfilled to reach their full

EDIT: Dialga and Crispin!

The Dreaded Dragon Depot

The basis of this deck is simple, get your dragons out as soon as possible with cards like Lance (Silver Tempest), Stormy Mountains (Evolving Skies), and via the incredibly powerful ability Dragon Call featured on Gabite (Dragons Exalted).

Drampa (McDonald's Collection 2022), Druddigon (Brilliant Stars), and Garchomp (Brilliant Stars) are all heavy hitters but have an additional cost or criteria that must be fulfilled to reach their full potential. Once you get them online, there is not much that can stand in their way for more than a turn at most.

With cards like Raihan (Evolving Skies) and Teammates (Primal Clash), you can respond to knockouts quickly while also gathering other powerful resources such as Fighting Fury Belt (BREAKpoint) and VS Seeker (Phantom Forces). This allows for quick turnarounds and forces your opponent to respond turn after turn. 

If you are not a fan of the current lineup, Pokemon like Noivern (Unified Minds) and Goodra (Fusion Strike) can replace another evolution line in the deck but with more evolutions does come the risk of not being able to set up fast enough, and may lead to you falling behind in the prize race.

This deck is a ton of fun to play! Feel free to comment and enjoy!

Thanks,

Charmatter

EDIT 11/13/2024

As the deck has continued to evolve, the pieces to make the deck run have as as well. With the addition of Dialga (Surging Sparks) I replaced long time staple Regidrago (Astral Radiance) which is a net positive in my opinion. Regidrago is an excellent card and does offer some draw capability but I hardly found myself using the ability as it requires you to be in the active. They both has 130 HP and do 160 damage (although for a different energy cost) but Dialga offers a few more benefits. Dialga has one less retreat cost and has an excellent first move in Time Manipulation that allows you to move any two cards from your deck to the top of your deck in any order you like. This makes Dialga a great set up card and can have you swinging for 160 as early as turn two.

Crispin (Stellar Crown) adds a layer of consistency and energy accleration that Dragon desperately needs due to the complex energy requirements for Dragon Pokemon. In response to Dialga and Crispin, I removed one fire energy and added one metal energy.

Lastly, I replaced N (BW Black Star Promos) with Iono (Paldean Fates) to pair with Dialga and removed Float Stone (Plasma Freeze) for U-Turn Board (Unified Minds) as I've been burned by Field Blower (Guardians Rising) too many times! Tatsugiri and Drakloak are the usual pivots for this deck and Dragonite offers free retreat with its ability mkaing U-Turn board the optimal retreat tool card.

EDIT 8/6/2024

Shrouded Fable has arrived and Dragon continues to get support!

Haxorus (Shrouded Fable) is an absolute upgrade over Haxorus (Brilliant Stars) that was seeing play in many Dragon decks. This new print of Haxorus is an excellent counter to cards like Wailord (Silver Tempest), Cetitan (Paldea Evolved) (although Wash Water Energy (Vivid Voltage) might give you a reason to play Enhanced Hammer (Guardians Rising)), and Necrozma (Unified Minds). Additionally, doing 230 damage knocks out just about everything in the format.

Kyurem (Shrouded Fable) is debately one of the best cards ever printed in regards to the GLC format. What makes this card great is also what makes this card extremely niche. Cards like Colress (Plasma Storm), Colress's Experiment (Lost Origin), and Colress's Tenacity (Shrouded Fable) all see play in a myriad of decks and types which gives Kyurem many opportunities to shine but your opponent can play around Kyurem's ability by keeping Colress cards in their hand or deck. This will not always be possible and your opponent may be holding themselves back from playing their game by not playing a Colress card. Experienced players will find a way to keep Kyurem offline but the threat of Kyurem is too good to not include.

Speaking of Colress, Colress's Tenacity (Shrouded Fable) is an excellent addition to this deck. You can grab Stormy Mountains (Evolving Skies) to help set up your bench and grab Double Dragon Energy (Roaring Skies) at the same time. Sometimes, being able to search out a special energy is all you can do with this card but that effect alone is still very powerful when you are playing seven special energy.

EDIT 6/5/2024

Dragon has been getting some love lately! Twlight Masquerade is the most impactful set for Dragon GLC in recent memory.

The Dragon type Applin (Twilight Masquerade) finally makes Flapple (Evolving Skies) a playable card in GLC format. It's Acidic Mucus attack can do up to 300 damage for a single colorless energy making it an extremely versatile and powerful attacker that is best utilized in the late game when your opponent has had a chance to get their abilities into play. This Pokemon can take huge knock outs while allowing you to save your valuable energy cards for other attackers.

Tatsugiri (Twilight Masquerade) is arguably the best pivot Pokemon in the format when paired with Float Stone (Plasma Freeze). Tatsugiri's "Attract Customers" reads "Once during your turn, if this Pokémon is in the Active Spot, you may look at the top 6 cards of your deck, reveal a Supporter card you find there, and put it into your hand. Shuffle the other cards back into your deck." This allows you to retire long-time staple Dragonite (Team Up) in favor of a more space-efficient method of Supporter search. I guess it can drop 50 damage with its Surf attack if you really need it to.

Dreepy (Twilight Masquerade) is our first Dragon type Dreepy that we have ever received and opens the door for another excellent addition in Drakloak (Twilight Masquerade). Drakloak has the classic ability to look at the top two cards of your deck and put one of those cards in your hand. The other goes to the bottom of the deck. This paired with Tatsugiri allows you to really sift through your deck in ways that were never possible with Dragon decks. Here is to hoping that we get a Dragon type Dragapult one day!

I've been playing this deck for a few months and have often found myself running out of steam in the end game. I'm always thinking "If I could only get one more KO with this Garchomp (Brilliant Stars)!" Because of this, I have dropped Great Ball (Emerging Powers) (I added Buddy-Buddy Poffin (Temporal Forces) in a previous edit which has worked nicely) and added Luxurious Cape (Paradox Rift) to get more utility out of the big attackers. Although you surrender an extra prize card, it is almost always worth the trade off. 

Looking forward, we have some excellent cards coming from Shrouded Fable in a new Haxorus line as well as the new Supporter card Colress' Tenacity. Kyurem looks pretty amazing as well. Dragon is in a prime position to get even better over the next few months and I am very excited for the future of this deck in the format!