Pokemon of the Week 7: Garchomp

Welcome to Pokemon of the Week, the seventh installment in a recurring series that looks at the impact of some of our favorite Pokemon on the anime, TCG and VGC. Taking a trip down memory lane to see the impact these Pokemon have had on the series and our lives is what makes Pokemon the magical thing it is.

Few Pokemon have held legendary status in all the realms we discuss here in Pokemon of the Week. Being a top character in the anime, a TCG Champion and a VGC Champion. If they are, you would think they have to be a mythical or legendary Pokemon, giving them an advantage. Enter the Mach Pokemon, Garchomp.

Classified as a pseudo-legendary, Garchomp has impressive stats and stature which has helped it carve its name in the history of Pokemon. For those new to the term, the list includes Dragonite, Tyranitar, Salamence, Metagross, Hydreigon, Goodra, Kommo-o and Dragapult. As a combination of Dragon- and Ground-type, Garchomp is unique from the start. In Pokemon history only Garchomp’s evolutionary line, Vibrava, Flygon and Zygarde carry this combination. Garchomp is also one of the rare Pokemon with access to Mega Evolution that is better in its standard forme. As the saying goes, if it ain’t broke.

When compared to other pseudo-legendary Pokemon Garchomp boasts the highest HP and the lowest Special Attack of the bunch. This sand shark is a physical nightmare for anyone who comes up against it. This impressive stature has led to it making appearances in Pokken Fighter and as a trophy and background character in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U.

In the anime

As is often the case there were two lesser features of Garchomp with core characters and then one final one that put it on its legendary pedestal. First, Professor Sycamore longest tenured partner was a female Garchomp that had the ability to Mega Evolve. She made several appearance alongside the professor throughout the XY era and was quite powerful in her own right.

Another Garchomp that showed up on multiple occasions partnered with Ash in Alola as his Ride Pokemon during the adventures of the Ultra Guardians. Not much is known about this Garchomp but it was still fun to see it partner with the series hero.

No disrespect to the other characters, but when you think of Garchomp in the Pokemon story you think of Cynthia, the Champion of the Sinnoh region. Used as her main battling partner, Garchomp was shown to be quite resilient and powerful. Most attacks, even from powerful Pokemon, had little effect on the champion’s ace partner and was a regular ally for Ash and Dawn to rely on in battles against Team Galactic.

When Cynthia made the trip to Unova of course we got to see some Garchomp action, this time taking on Iris and Axew. She also battled against Unova Elite Four member Caitlin and her Gothitelle in an exhibition match. In one of the few times Garchomp was pushed to the limit the battle went back and forth before being forced to a time-limit draw.

TCG

Given the limited information of TCG Championships prior to the Black & White era to present (starting in 2013) it tells you everything you need to know about Garchomp’s impact in the history of the game that LuxChomp is likely the most famous TCG deck of all time, winning the World Championship in two out of three age divisions in 2010. In an era before huge HP took over Lv. X was the name of the game. This allowed a Pokemon to evolve further, in this case from Garchomp C to Garchomp C Lv. X.

This Garchomp had the Poke-Power (modern day abilities) that allowed the trainer to remove all damage counters from each of their Pokemon SP when you evolved the active Pokemon into this. That was powerful enough before even getting to the attack.

Dragon Rush is nothing to sneeze at either. At a cost of three colorless energy the attacking player needed to discard two energy to deal 80 damage to any Pokemon on your opponent’s board. Huge damage control like this set this strategy apart from the rest of the competition, in addition to the options provided by Luxray GL Lv. X.

Not to be left as a relic of the past, Unified Minds returned Garchomp returned to the top tables as a part of a tag team, partnering with one of my personal favorites as Garchomp & Giratina GX. This card made waves before the rest of the strategy around it even coming to the TCG as it was part of a popular Hand Lock deck in Japan that seemed to own the format. As the Expanded format waited to be rocked by the new tag team it transformed into a different strategy in the TCG.

Garchomp & Giratina GX paired with Green’s Exploration and Mismagius UBB allowed you to go down on prizes early while filling up your hand and customizing all of your options. From there you would be able to attack around the board and take big knockouts. This strategy took first and thirteenth place at the San Diego Regional Championships and only evolved from there.

The Pokemon Company International smartly issued a ban list that stopped the hand loop before it could come to the TCG Expanded format but the Standard variant translated well to expanded. Adding Roxie and Weezing to the strategy improved the damage output and draw capabilities and became arguably the best strategy in both formats. It would take another regional win, this time in the Expanded format in Dallas.

VGC

There are only 48 Pokemon to ever win a World Championship in VGC, and only 18 to win more than once. Garchomp has been on the winning side twice, cementing itself as a VGC legend. It’s first victory came in 2012 as part of a team piloted by reigning World Champion Ray Rizzo to finish off his third consecutive World Championship win. Garchomp was on a team with three other pseudo-legendary Pokemon in VGC stallwarts Tyranitar and Metagross as well as Hydreigon. The team was rounded out by common choices in Cresselia and Wash Rotom.

Two years later VGC had moved from Black/White to X/Y and Garchomp was part of possibly the most well-known VGC team of all time, when Sejun Park used his favorite Pokemon Pachirisu to win the World Championships. The rest of the team was quite interesting as well, packing Mega Gyarados, Gardevoir, Gothitelle and Talonflame. The winning match is very famous and is reviewed below by fellow World Champion Wolfe Glicke.

At the World Championships in 2017 many playerswould bring Garchomp back to the competitive forefront, dominating at the Anaheim Open. At the World Championships there is a side even called the Open which is treated as Regional Championship in terms of prizing but being held at the World Championships opens it to the best players from around the world who traveled the the event. While the team data is logged only for Alberto Lara (second place), Garchomp was part of five of the teams in the top 8 of the even, including Lara and the winner Tomoya Kumura.

This would not be the last successful finish for Lara with Garchomp. He would take the same team from the open to the Fort Wayne Regional Championship and finish in the top 8. The team consisted of the aforementioned Garchomp, Tapu Koko, Celesteela, Mimikyu, Snorlax and Milotic. Lara would swap out Milotic, Mimikyu and Snorlax for Gengar, Tapu Lele and Salamence and win the Hartford Regional Championship four weeks later. Garchomp and Lara owned the better part of a 45 day stretch of Pokemon VGC.

The most recent success for the Mach Pokemon came at the International Championship in London two months later, where it took three spots in the top 8 (first, fourth and top 8) with three slightly different teams. All three teams included Garchomp, Celesteela and Arcanine, two of them included Tapu Lele and a different pairing included Alolan Ninetales. The unique choices included Alolan Muk, Tapu Koko, Whimsicott, Tapu Fini and Togedemaru. This goes to show the flexibility of building around Garchomp. This legend bring so much power to a team that you can build around it as you see fit.

Garchomp has not yet been released into Sword and Shield but there are rumors that it may join the game in the Crown Tundra DLC later this year. Once it becomes a part of the VGC meta it is not hard to imagine the Mach Pokemon picking up right where it left off.