Lucarchomp (Pre-A2b)

Lucario's Fighting Coach ability can help cover for the lower damage of Gible and Gabite's attacks while they are waiting to evolve, as well as allow Marshadow and Garchomp ex to reach a crucial 120 damage break point. This allows them to OHKO the ubiquitous Arceus ex thanks to weakness, and even successfully OHKO through Giant Cape if you manage to evolve 2 Lucario. Garchomp ex's Linear Attack allows the bench to be sniped without being disallowed from attacking the Active Spot like Hitmonlee, and because Cyrus can bring in a chipped benched Pokémon, 50+120 becomes a devastating combo that can pseudo-OHKO practically any meta relevant Pokémon. Sudowoodo is also an important option with how saturaterd the meta is with Pokémon ex, boasting a 70 damage Fighting Headbutt with Fighting Coach. Most Basic Pokémon ex will be 2HKO'd by this, and those that aren't will still be put at extreme risk of a revenge kill from even a stray Riolu or Gible. Arceus ex is again made very vulnerable against this deck, being 2HKO'2 by Fiohting Headbutt even without Lucario in play.

Unfortunately, the deck is prone to getting outpaced by certain faster ex strategies, such as Infernape ex or Yanmega ex with Leafeon ex, as the player is forced to choose between sacrificing tempo by attaching energy primarily to the bench or risking a complete blowout by sticking to the usual proactive gameplan. For similar reasons, it also loses quite dramatically to certain Darkrai builds, particularly those that use Crobat. Despite being able to take advantage of two Fighting weak Pokémon in such a deck, Arceus ex and the Crobat line, it can be very difficult for the Active Pokémon to weather the onslaught of chip damage. Garchomp ex is the only Pokémon in the deck that can survive 20+30+80 damage in a single turn, and it is incredibly difficult to manufacture a situation in which it can enter the Active Spot without prior chip damage, not to mention that it will almost certainly get knocked out by chip damage the turn after, leaving a benched Pokémon to potentially get knocked out by 80 damage alone. These matchups can be shored up with additional Giant Capes or Potions, and if they are particularly frustrating, Sabrinas to displace walls or slow down the opponent's energy curve, but it can be painful to lose X-Speed or Pokémon Communication as consistency boosters, so tread carefully in this effort.

Despite these bad matchups, the deck possesses high potential for efficient, punishing, and reactive gameplay, with the ability to brutally punish ex decks with Fighting Headbutt, force checkmate with Revenge and Linear Attack, and critically, hard counter Arceus ex, possibly the single most prolific Pokémon in the current meta.