Top 10 Floodgates in the Pokemon TCG

Some of the strongest cards in the Pokémon TCG are cards that don’t actually let your opponent play the game. This concept of disruption goes as far back as the first Pokémon TCG sets, and today we will take a look at some of the most powerful cards in the game’s history that force your opponent to sit and watch while you get to play the game.

Script by Rahul Reddy
Edited by Lily

-The List-
Intro: (0:00)
10. Stoutland (0:14)
9. Temple of Sinnoh (2:17)
8. Path to the Peak (4:04)
7. Trevenant (5:25)
6. Seismitoad EX (7:20)
5. Vileplume (9:09)
4. Spiritomb (11:09)
3. Archeops (12:45)
2. Gengar & Mimikyu GX (14:44)
1. Garbodor (17:35)

#pokemon #pokemontcg

[bakh]

I think Path to the Peak is the ideal representative as the card disables any rule-box Pokémon. Making it super future proof.

[sandragon]

I would maybe have noted that Archeops’ Ability is a modern version of Fossil Aerodactyl’s Prehistoric Power, and Garbotoxin-style Ability locking first appeared in the form of Fossil Muk’s Toxic Gas.

[DaneeBound]

Another notable partner for Garbotoxin-Garbodor was Trashalanche-Garbodor (convenient, since both evolve from the same Trubbish), a card that punished your opponent for over-relying on their item cards. There were some decklists that used the aforementioned Drampa GX, but another version with Golisopod GX made it all the way to the finals of the 2017 World Championships, and it might have won it all that year, were it not for Gardevoir GX.

[munchrai]

I do find it interesting how the abundance of common card types and the pace of the game leads to most of these cards doing nothing more than slow down the game. The only cards on this list that lock out entire decks are either attached to easily removable stadiums, hard to summon stage 2s or require extra criteria like being in the active spot or needing to attach a tool for them to work. It's these sorts hoops that make cards like this a lot more manageable than they are in say yugioh, where all you have to do is flip up a backrow

[kingwailord]

The first slowking when it was released had a mistranslation that made its powerful abitily (which disabled all trainers on a coin flip) stack; it was horrendously overpowered and took over the game for two years, dominating every single tournament and winning worlds both years. Its reign of terror ended when it got banned and wizards of the coast (who owned the game at that time) finally admitted their mistake. Although since it was a mistake for the card to be so strong, its perhaps dubious to include it on the list (its worth noting that in Japan were there was no translation mistake, the card wasnt very good)

[garfieldcouch]

I've been watching your Yu-Gi-Oh channel for years and just found out do a pokemon channel. This made my month.

[Mitjitsu]

What made Garbodor so broken was the release of Float Stone. Making Catcher stall tactics worthless. Personally I think Spiritomb should have been number 1. Given it's attack allows you to setup more important evolved Pokémon and it's body allows for hit and switch decks.

[dabsflirtatiously]

I'd still love to see one of these lists for Prime cards someday

[benwilsher]

Temple of Sinnoh also cripples Mew VMAX decks which often only run 4 Double Turbo Energy and occasionally some Fusion Strike Energy, and Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX decks which often only run Rapid Strike Energy and Water Energy for use with Melony - meaning with Temple in play they cannot attack as Urshifu requires Fighting Energy.

[stevenashley]

Seismitoad was also a great standalone attacker in the Hammer Toad deck that won the 2015 US Nationals (can’t remember the player’s name). It’d use Hypnotoxic Laser with Virbank City Gym to slowly chip away their HP, while item locking with Seismitoad and using Crushing Hammer to chip away their energy. Along with a Team Flare item (again, forgot it’s name) as an additional way to disrupt them

[kisapniaq]

In my opinion not including Wobbuffet or Power Plant is a massive missed oppertunity, even if their impact was more so historic than modern. Very solid list though

[adamkarlb]

8:06 you are soooo wrong! The shaymin ex verision pre ban was handsdown the most absurd deck of all time to be legally allowed in a tournament. The only thing that has ever gotten close enough is sebledonk and murkrow slowking. But seismitoad shaymin pre ban are even more inzane than those 2

[bridgeseller]

2:45 - not "any" of Regi, but all of them. You need to have all 5 at the same time.

[jacklantrn]

I always ran trevenant break with
Creepshow gengar. "If the defending pokemon has 3 or more damage counters on it, that pokemon is knocked out" or something like that. Had some upsets in its time lol

[Darkusflame]

I use Path to the Peak in my Regigigas deck to shut down a lot of decks

[darearteaga]

im dissapointed bacuse you didnt mentioned the garbotoxic - miltank deck that was huge during worlds ( i think it was 2018), a perfect anti meta deck that everyone playing GX were afraid to face.

[TKRosewood]

I didn't know duel logs did pokemon stuff, AWESOME.

[George-kzhb]

God this dude loves his Gengar&Mimikyu GX

[gabrielcastillo]

The most annoying deck I have encontered in Expanded is the Evomancy Orbeetle deck, which focuses on getting the most annoying stage 2 mons in play in a single attack. It can set up Sentinel Stoutland, Vileplume and Dusknoir or Decidueye in a single turn, which combined with something like a Silent Lab leaves you unable to do basically anything for the whole game.

[kaseywahl]

Path to the Peak is my blood type at this point.