Trick or Treat
• "Should you feel yourself attacked by a sudden chill, it is evidence of an approaching Gengar. There is no escaping it. Give up." ~ Sun & Moon Pokédex entry
• "Rumor has it that its gigantic mouth leads not into its body, filled with cursed energy, but instead directly to the afterlife.It lays traps, hoping to steal the lives of those it catches. If you stand in front of its mouth, you'll hear your loved ones' voices calling out to you." ~ Sword & Shield Pokédex entry
Gengar, probably the most iconic Ghost-type Pokémon ever! What's not to love about 'em, its the perfect mix of creepy and cute. Growing up, I LOVED using Gengar in Pokémon Stadium on the N64. But, I vividly remember my Mom hating to see Gengar every time, so much so, that she would beg me not to use 'em when she would play with me. Maybe it was the creepy tongue animation it made in between attacks, not sure, but I still love the Shadow Pokémon to this day. (partially because of how creepy my Mom found it to be...)
Gengar isn't just one of the most iconic Pokémon of all time however... Gengar is also remembered by many, as one of the most notoriously frustrating decks in history. "Cursegar", filled with countless Ghost-type Pokémon, the deck centered around Gengar SF's Fainting Spell Poké-POWER. Fainting Spell was basically an "Ability" (in modern lame-man's speech) in which allowed its user to flip a coin if Gengar would be knocked-out. If heads, the opponent's attacking Pokémon too was KO'd! Now, we've seen plenty of effects like this throughout the history of the game, but this deck's use of it was by far, the strongest we've ever seen.
To get a better grasp on the deck I'm talking about, take a look at the deck in it's most popular form, the 3rd Place 2010 World Championships list - piloted by Frank Diaz. (Please forgive me for some of the low quality card images, the site is being completely updated as you read this.)
If you can't tell, the theme of the deck was to disrupt in the early-game, with Gastly and Spiritomb - Spread damage, or deal potentially massive damage, with Gengar - Heal with Nidoqueen, prolonging the amount of turns it took for an opponent to KO any Gengar - disrupting w/ Gengar Lv.X - disrupting by completely removing Pokémon from play with Dusknoir - and ultimately forcing your opponent to either play around Fainting Spell, or risking it for the biscuit with the potential of lossing their attacker... Such an amazingly cool and fun deck!
To add to the raw power of this deck, thanks to the rules at the time, Rare Candy could be used as early as the first turn of the game (at least for the player going second, as whomever won the coin flip wasn't allowed to play Trainers, much like how we can't play a Supporter on turn 1 today) - and the turn a Pokémon was put into play! Meaning, a Stage 2 Gengar could be set up in one single turn - with an Energy dealing damage!
And to add to that... many decks in 2010 played Broken Time Space, and ohhhh boy did this deck abuse that Stadium...
All though the Fainting Spell Gengar was the focal point of the deck, this Card of the Month entry is about it's Lv.X card! Why the Lv.X? Because it's artwork is insane, just look at it! It was an extremely powerful addition to the deck when it was released in the Platinum Arceus expansion, nearly a year after Fainting Spell Gengar was released. It beefed up a Stage 2 Gengar, and it's Poké-POWER was incredible, as Lv.X cards (not to be confused with evolution cards) could only be put into play via "Leveling Up" an active Pokémon. Pokémon could NOT be leveled up from the bench. Thus, it was kind of tricky at times to pull off a level up. Gengar Lv.X reading that it can force a Lv.X card in play to be shuffled into the deck at any moment was broken to say the least.
While Gengar Lv.X was a strong card, many Gengar lists opted out of including it, mostly due to the name rules at the time. As a Gengar Lv.X counted as a "Gengar" in a decklist, meaning you couldn't play more than 4 of any type of Gengar card. Have you or would you include this Lv.X in your Gengar build?
Thanks for checking out this Card of the Month entry on Halloween, as a treat, here's some random Ghost-type cards that were also up for consideration for this article. All of which were prevelant in the 2009 & 2010 formats.
Enjoy this Card of the Month excerpt? Have any crazy stories about flipping a Fainting Spell heads for game? Tweet us at @PTCG_Legends using the button below and let us know! And if you enjoy what you see, consider supporting us on Patreon, link below!
