Getting Colorful with Colorless
Hello all! My name is Kyle (aka xMertaugx)! Today I am going to be talking about my favorite deck that I have ever constructed: the rainbow Colorless Gym Leader Challenge deck! This deck is a variation of the attacking style Colorless deck that utilizes Colorless Pokemon’s unique ability to to use any type of basic Energy! Let's get started.
Support
For this deck, your Supporter lineup doesn't have to look like your typical Colorless list. In a standard attacking Colorless deck, Crazy Code Porygon is standard. But for this list, most of the Energy you are playing isn’t Special! Not to say Porygon-Z isn’t helpful in certain instances, just that it isn’t completely necessary! Cinccino SSH and Pidgeotto TEU are the primary support Pokemon for this deck. Being able to draw between one and three extra cards per turn is insanely valuable. These two Pokemon make up one of the best draw support cores in Gym Leader Challenge format!
Another support Pokemon that I have really enjoy in this deck is Talonflame! Talonflame is unique in that it’s a Stage 2 Pokemon that can be put into play as a Basic Pokemon with its “Gale Wings” Ability if Talonflame is in your opening hand. This card is busted! Its “Aero Blitz” attack allow you to search your deck for any two cards and put them into your hand while dealing 40 damage! And it does this all for one energy! If you can start Talonflame, then it can fast track your board state and allow you to set up very aggressively. If you don’t open Talonflame in your opening hand, that’s fine too. Once you have Cinccino online, you will need cards to discard, and Talonflame makes perfect Make Do fodder!
Rayquaza GRI is an interesting card for this deck because of its first attack, “Turbo Stream”. This attack allows you to attach two basic Energy from your discard to a Pokémon on your bench. This attack has good synergy with this list because it allows you to be less hesitant when discarding Energy for Cinccino’s “Make Do” Ability. It also allows you to accelerate different types of Energy onto your attackers which we will talk about a little further down! In a pinch, Rayquaza can deal 80 damage with his “Dragon Claw” attack as well, KOing many smaller Basic Pokemon. While this damage isn’t great for the Energy investment, Rayquaza benefits from Double Colorless Energy and Twin Energy, allowing it to attack for one or two Energy attachments. With cards like Powerful Energy and Muscle Band, the math actually isn’t too bad, and Rayquaza can swing for 100-120 damage pretty reliably!
Main Attackers
First up is probably the flashiest card in the deck! Arceus XY83 is a full art promo from the XY block that can be a bit difficult to find, but it is a card that gets tons of value in a deck that utilizes every type of Basic Energy! Its first attack, Gather Light, allows you to move as many Energy from your other Pokémon on your Bench to Arceus. This attack is situational at best, but can help set up for a big Judgement Blast! Judgement Blast does 10 damage plus 30 more damage for each different type of basic Energy attached to Arceus! With nine different types of Basic Energy available, this attack has the potential to deal a lot of damage!
Similar to Arceus, Ho-Oh from Lost Thunder does 30 plus 30 more damage for each type of basic Energy attached to it with its Rainbow Burn attack. With three different types of Energy attached, Rainbow Burn does 120 damage. Ho-Oh is the Pokemon you want to build up as fast as possible to begin taking KOs quickly! With 130 HP, Ho-Oh has a good amount of bulk and can also benefit from Tools like Cape of Toughness and Fighting Fury Belt. With Fighting Fury Belt and three different Energy, Rainbow Burn hits the magic number in Gym Leader Challenge: 130.
Kecleon from Chilling Reign is the most versatile Colorless Pokemon ever printed in my opinion! Its Ability, Chromashift, makes Kecleon the same type as all basic Energy attached to it, allowing Kecleon to hit for nearly any Weakness! When hitting for weakness, Kecleon's Spinning Attack deals a whopping 180 damage and easily KOs most Pokemon in Gym Leader Challenge. With the help of cards like Muscle Band, Fighting Fury Belt, or even Powerful Colorless Energy, you can OHKO anything in the format that has a Weakness!
Finally, my favorite card in the deck: Smeargle from Evolving Skies! This card is so much fun! Its attack, Live Painting, does 30 damage plus 30 more damage for each different type of basic Energy you have in your hand! Smeargle combos well with cards like Cilan, Gordie, and even Fisherman! You need to get Energy in your hand to be able to attach it anyway, so you might as well utilize the Energy you weren’t able to attach during your turn and turn it into damage! With Double Colorless Energy or Twin Energy, its possible to attack with Live Painting as early as the first or second turn of the game!
Important Trainer Cards
Gordie is an underrated card, in my opinion, and powerful in this list. Gordie allows you to look at the top 7 cards of your deck and reveal any number of Energy cards you find, then put them into your hand. This gives you the ability to grab a bunch of basic Energy or even Special Energy like Double Colorless Energy or Powerful Energy from the deck and place them in your hand. Similarly, Cilan is a supporter that allows you to search your deck for three basic Energy and place them into your hand. This is great for fetching different Energy to hit big numbers with Smeargle!
As far as Stadiums are concerned, there are only two that I think are worth running in this deck. The first is Training Court. Training Court allows you to grab a basic Energy from your discard and put it into your hand. When paired with Cinccino and its Make Do Ability, you essentially get to draw two cards for free every turn without having to sacrifice any other cards in your hand! Recovering specific Energy is really good here, since it allows you to find exactly what you need to power up your rainbow attackers.
The second Stadium worth including in this list is Aspertia City Gym, which gives +20 HP to all Colorless Pokemon in play. While 20 HP might not seem like a lot at first, Aspertia City Gym combined with Cape of Toughness and Fighting Fury Belt can make your Colorless Pokemon tough to take down! Survivability is important in this deck since many of the attackers require multiple Energy attachments.
Energy
One final thing that I found to be pretty crucial to the overall success of this deck is your Energy count. I have found that somewhere in the ballpark of 17-18 Energy seems to be the sweet spot. For the most part, you are going to have a bunch of single Basic Energy counts. As far as Special Energy, I have found Recycle Energy, Double Colorless , Twin Energy, Capture Energy, and Powerful Colorless Energy to be useful!
One of the neat things about this deck is that you can change your Energy count to respond to the metagame. For example, if I am going to a tournament and I know that Grass and Water are really popular, I might up my Fire and Lightning Energy counts up to two each so that I increase my chances of hitting for weakness with Kecleon!
Summary
The rainbow Colorless deck is one of the most unique, fun and versatile decks in Gym Leader Challenge. Smeargle, Ho-Oh, and Arceus make great use of all nine Basic Energy. These attackers accompanied by Colorless’ amazing support result in a cohesive deck that can swing for some impressive numbers! Gym Leader Challenge is about diving into the expanded card pool and figuring out which combinations of cards you like best, so feel free to try this strategy out and tweak it however you see fit! Thanks for reading!
