Exciting New Ghost Veil Deck announced in Pitch Black!
Things are looking dim for the future in terms of the ultimate cringe overlord, Dragapult ex. This new one-prize deck has good draw, good attacks, and albeit gimmicky prize mapping. The deck is focused around overwhelming spread damage, prize denial, and exploitation.
In specifics to exploitation and prize denial, Ghost Veil shuts down anything that places damage counters on it. That means no Alakazam, Dusknoir, Munkidori, Froslass, Phantom Dive, etc. for your opponents if they choose to target a Ghost Veil Pokémon.
In regards to overwhelming spread damage, Spiritomb is fundamentally a god compared to N's Vanilluxe, which only doubles the amount of damage on your opponent's Pokémon. Its attack quadruples the damage on two of your opponent's Pokémon for one C energy, and it's a Basic Pokémon. 40 → 160, 80 → 320, 120 → 480. Combine this with Sinistcha's attack (40 spread damage) and you can clean out your opponent's entire board in a single turn. One major drawback to Spiritomb is its attack condition, only allowing the attack if 13 Ghost Veil Pokémon cards are in the discard. This makes it purely a late-game attacker, which may raise issues if you begin with one in the Active Spot (it does not have the Ghost Veil ability).
For Dragapult, Dhelmise hits 340 if you have Lillie's Clefairy in play. That's going to do a lot of work against Dragapult decks. Even better, Dhelmise with Black Belt's Training can knock out a Fezandipiti, and one-shots Meowth. Dhelmise by itself honestly seems incredibly strong, but Munkidori once again ends up being the party-pooper. Get down Mr. President- Stage 1 and Stage 2 Megas get out of two-shot range entirely via a single Adrena-Brain. Good thing Lillie's Clefairy exists.
For drawing power, this deck really wants to play the new Gwynn. Gwynn discards up to 2 Pokémon from your hand that do not have a rule box, drawing 3 cards for each Pokémon you discarded. This pairs somewhat well with Sinistcha, although it is more likely for Carmine or Lillie's Determination to take up most of the Supporter slots.
Now, about the ginormous elephant in the room. You can't hide behind Ghost Veil and expect to get away with it against most decks. All of your Pokémon are around 60 HP, which is extremely low for such a gimmicky damage setup. In addition, cards like Greninja ex and N's Darmanitan can easily destroy your bench with no real response options, going right through Ghost Veil. Keep in mind that Mega Greninja ex decks will all at least play one copy of Greninja ex, and that deck right now is the presumed successor of Dragapult. That means a likely 20% of the players you face will end your run on the third or fourth turn. 13 Ghost Veil Pokémon in the discard pile to use Spiritomb is super demanding, requiring either insane milling or stalling enough time to get there. In this meta, the time just is not there. By the time you get Spiritomb running, you will likely be 2-3 prizes down. Overall, this deck will be really fun, but not too practical.
Poltchageist - Grass - HP30
Basic Pokemon
Ability: Ghost Veil
This Pokemon can't be affected by effects of attacks or Abilities from your opponent's Pokemon.
[C] Furtive Drop: Place 1 damage counter on your opponent's Active Pokemon.
Weakness: Fire (x2)
Resistance: none
Retreat: 0
Sinistcha - Grass - HP60
Stage 1 - Evolves from Poltchageist
Ability: Ghost Veil
This Pokemon can't be affected by effects of attacks or Abilities from your opponent's Pokemon.
[C] Matcha Spin: If you have 6 or more Pokemon in your discard with the Ghost Veil Ability, place 4 damage counters on each of your opponent's Pokemon.
Weakness: Fire (x2)
Resistance: none
Retreat: 1
Shuppet - Psychic - HP50
Basic Pokemon
Ability: Ghost Veil
This Pokemon can't be affected by effects of attacks or Abilities from your opponent's Pokemon.
[P] Hang Down: 10 damage.
Weakness: Darkness (x2)
Resistance: Fighting (-30)
Retreat: 1
Banette - Psychic - HP80
Stage 1 - Evolves from Shuppet
Ability: Ghost Veil
This Pokemon can't be affected by effects of attacks or Abilities from your opponent's Pokemon.
[P] Doll Catch: 80 damage. You may search your deck for any card and put it into your hand. If you do, shuffle your deck.
Weakness: Darkness (x2)
Resistance: Fighting (-30)
Retreat: 1
Spiritomb - Psychic - HP60
Basic Pokemon
[P] Soul End: If you have 13 or more Pokemon in your discard with the Ghost Veil Ability, choose 2 of your opponent's Pokemon and quadruple the number of damage counters on each of them.
Dhelmise - Psychic - HP140
Basic Pokemon
[P] Regretful Rage: 30+ damage. If you have 4 or more Pokemon in your discard with the Ghost Veil Ability, this attack does 140 more damage.
Weakness: Darkness (x2)
Resistance: Fighting (-30)
Retreat: 3
Gwynn - Trainer
Supporter
Discard up to 2 Pokemon from your hand (excluding any Rule Box Pokemon). Draw 3 cards for each Pokemon discarded in this way.
You may play only 1 Supporter card during your turn.