A Meeting of the Minds!

A couple of Psychic-type Pokémon have appeared that complement each other well in establishing a foundation for numerous decks. The first is Gothitelle (Black & White—Emerging Powers, 47/98), a Stage 2 Pokémon with the highly effective Magic Room Ability, which prevents your opponent from playing Item cards as long as Gothitelle is your Active Pokémon. The second is another Stage 2 card, Reuniclus (Black & White, 57/114), which also has a useful Ability: Damage Swap lets you move damage counters around on your Pokémon any way you like during your turn.

Gothitelle’s Magic Room Ability disrupts your opponent’s gameplay in all kinds of ways. He or she won’t be able to get or move Energy because Gothitelle blocks Energy Retrieval, Energy Search, or Energy Switch. Your Pokémon won’t be vulnerable to getting shuffled away by Pokémon Catcher and won’t get damaged from Plus Power (meaning Reshiram and Zekrom can’t take Gothitelle out in one hit). And your opponent will have trouble filling his or her Bench by not being able to play Poké Ball, Pokémon Communication, or Great Ball. In other words, the Magic Room Ability is awesome.

But Gothitelle won’t be immune to attacks, and that’s where Reuniclus fits in. It can keep Gothitelle healthy by moving damage counters from it to your other Pokémon. One simple method is to move all the damage Gothitelle takes to a high-HP Basic Pokémon on your Bench, such as Reshiram (Black & White, 113/114) or Zekrom (Black & White, 114/114). Then, you can either heal that Pokémon with a Max Potion (Black & White—Emerging Powers, 94/98), or return it to your hand with a Super Scoop Up (Black & White, 103/114) or Seeker (HS—Triumphant, 88/103). Of course, you can then replay the Pokémon right away to get it ready for another round of healing.

When it comes to attacking, Gothitelle is the clear favorite between these two Pokémon. Its Madkinesis attack does 30 damage plus 20 additional damage for each Psychic Energy attached to it. So, with three Psychic Energy attached, you’re doing 90 damage every turn, with more to come with each extra Psychic Energy you attach.

That kind of damage is great...but it’s not your only option. The nice thing about the Gothitelle-and-Reuniclus combination is that you can use the combination to set up other Pokémon. For example, put Gothitelle up front solely to let it weather attacks while you prepare your hardest hitters on your Bench. For example, put Zekrom on your Bench and use Reuniclus to move any damage onto it. Once you’re ready, retreat Gothitelle or use a Switch Item card to make Zekrom your Active Pokémon, and then start landing huge blows with Outrage, the damage for which goes up depending on how many damage counters are on Zekrom. Experiment with other attackers, too; the Abilities of Gothitelle and Reuniclus don’t require any Energy, allowing you to develop virtually any attacking Pokémon on your Bench.

Since both Gothitelle and Reuniclus are Stage 2 Pokémon, getting your deck set up can be something of a challenge. Don’t forget to include Pokémon Communication (Black & White, 99/114) and Rare Candy (HS—Unleashed, 82/96) to get out your Evolutions. Also, if you’re going to be using Switch cards heavily, consider adding a couple Junk Arm (HS—Triumphant, 87/103) Trainer cards to your deck to retrieve them from your discard pile when needed.

Obviously this is just a skeleton of a deck—you still have many decisions to make about how to ensure it all works together. Experiment and have fun with the creative combination of Gothitelle and Reuniclus!